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The first Champions League game of the 2004/05 season is on 15 September 2004. The Werkself had just lost 2-0 away to newly promoted Mainz 05 four days before although they did win the last Bundesliga home game almost three weeks before that with an impressive 4-1 victory over Bayern Munich. Within seven minutes, between minutes 52 and 59, Franca with a brace and Dimitar Berbatov increased the half-time lead of 1-0 from a goal scored by the Bulgarian centre forward to an incredible 4-0. Michael Ballack scored a consolation goal for FC Bayern on 84 minutes.
The Werkself are on the front foot from the start on Wednesday night in front of a full house of 22,500 spectators at the BayArena. The team led by coach Klaus Augenthaler had three chances in the first ten minutes with a whipped-in cross from Paul Freier turned onto the post by Dimitar Berbatov as Madrid are pushed back into their own half.
Then the lead on 39 minutes. Jacek Krzynowek shoots from distance from a corner and the ball bounces off the left-hand post and the hand of goalkeeper Casillas into the back of the net.
The half-time lead is doubled on 50 minutes with a wonder goal from Franca and Dimitar Berbatov makes it 3-0 five minutes later. The BayArena goes wild. The Werkself work themselves into a frenzy and dominate the Spaniards at will.
At the end of 90 minutes, Bayer 04 celebrate a sensational start to the Champions League campaign 2004/05 that ends with the Werkself losing out to Liverpool in the Round of 16.
Here are the two teams for the nostalgic:
Bayer 04: Butt – Schneider, Juan, Roque Junior, Placente, Ramelow, Freier (Bierofka 84’), Ponte (Balitsch 80’), Krzynowek, Franca (Babic 69’), Berbatov
Real Madrid: Casillas – Salgado, Pavon, Samuel, Roberto Carlos, Beckham, Helguera, Figo (Celades 58’), Zidane (Morientes 46’), Raul, Ronaldo (Solari 58’)
In this video you can watch impressive and important goals in the history of Bayer 04 in the month of October. It is not always about the beauty of the goals but also about remembering special games and players.
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The Werkself secured victory against Bayern Munich for the first time on 1 November 1986. On matchday 12, Bayer 04 beat the Bundesliga league leaders 3-0 at the Olympic Stadium in Munich and go top of the table.
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Torben Hoffman was born in Kiel on 27 October 1974. In his youth he played for TuS Schwarz-Weiß Elmschershagen. The qualified policeman joined Holstein Kiel in 1993. Two years later he moved on to VfB Lübeck in Bundesliga two. After relegation with Lübeck in 1997 he came to attention of SC Freiburg and they signed the defender. The team relegated from the Bundesliga went straight back up with Torben who moved under the Bayer Cross in 1999 after another year in the Bundesliga. However, he was unable to establish himself at Leverkusen making only sporadic appearances and he was rarely in the starting XI. He played in a total of 30 games for the Werkself.
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Thomas ‘Thommy’ Reichenberger was born in Bad Kreuznach on 14 October 1974. The son of a former Bundesliga player – his father Max made 38 Bundesliga appearances for 1860 Munich – played for Eintracht Bad Kreuznach as a youth player before moving up to the first team.
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Manfred ‘Manni’ Pomp was born in Aachen on 25 October 1964. His first football club was the Aachen police sports club (PSV) but he signed for Alemannia Aachen after a year.
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