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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’)
Bernd Schneider, born in Jena on 17 November 1973, spent his early years in the German Democratic Republic. He took his first steps in football at the two Jena clubs BSG Aufbau and FC Carl Zeiss, the biggest club in his hometown. He played in the second division for six years in the 90s. Bernd Schneider stood out as an accomplished dribbler with his experience from street football always evident. His nickname Schnix comes from the Thuringian dialect: ‘Schnixeln’ is a synonym for dribbling, being able to control the ball. After Jena were relegated in 1998, Schnix went in the opposite direction. Newly promoted Eintracht Frankfurt brought into the Bundesliga. He spent a year there.
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18 June 1950 saw a friendly match for FC Köln, formed from the merger of two clubs in February 1948, against the Werkself at the Stadion Am Stadtpark. The two teams had already faced each other in May 1949 as winners of the Rhine district leagues in the final for promotion to the Oberliga West. The new club from Cologne came out on top in the two games and were promoted.
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In a messed-up season in 1984/85 everybody is happy that the battle against relegation is over before the final matchday. The visitors are UEFA Cup contenders SV Waldhof Mannheim in front of a sparse 6,000 spectators at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium. The Waldhof lads under their coach Klaus Schlappner are the surprise packet of the season. In their second campaign in the Bundesliga, the team from Mannheim are fifth on 35 points (with two points for a win back then) ahead of the game in Leverkusen and in a UEFA Cup qualifying spot. Two points behind them are Bayer 05 Uerdingen and Hamburg SV.
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Tranquillo Barnetta was born in St. Gallen in Switzerland on 22 May 1985. Quillo, as he was called in the football world, has Italian roots. His great-grandfather emigrated from Italy to the east of Switzerland. Quillo was interested in football early on and he played for the St. Gallen club FC Rotmonten from the age of six. He joined his favourite club FC St. Gallen at the age of 11. There he became a youth international. He won the European Championships with his teammates in the Switzerland U17 team in 2002. The youngsters from Switzerland beat France 4-2 on penalties in the final to become U17 European champions.
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Since the establishment of the Bundesliga on 28 July 1962 for the 1963/64 season, there have been five Regional Leagues: North, Berlin, West, South-west and South. The champions of those five leagues qualified directly for promotion play-offs that were played in two groups of four teams. That included the two second-placed teams in the West and South-west Regional Leagues. The two runners-up from the North and the South played a qualifier for the eighth place in the promotion games.
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