Match of the month: 30 years ago – The crazy game against Benfica

However, I’m chosen to do a drugs test. Worried that with all the medicines I took the day before there might be something that’s banned, I run to Tscholli gripped by panic. But he puts my mind at ease. Correctly as it happens. But the game didn’t do my body any good. I dropped out of the recovery session on Sunday and Tscholli visited me at home to provide care. The next game on Tuesday is away to Benfica in the European Cup Winners Cup. And I had to be fit again by then because our management did not think our second keeper Dirk Heinen could cope in front of 90,000 Portuguese fans at the Estádio da Luz. Up to that point, Dirk had not played in a competitive match for the first team at Bayer 04 Leverkusen.

Somehow I survived the flight to Lisbon albeit with a high temperature. When we check into the hotel it’s decided that Tscholli will have a room right next to mine with a connecting door he can use. The team complete the pre-match training session in the evening without me and I also miss out on the evening meal. Much more important are the compresses Tscholli applies every hour to get my temperature down. Including during the night!

The next morning I dragged myself onto the pitch for the final pre-match training session and I dived to the right in a drill with my goalkeeping coach Werner Friese and I almost can’t get up again due to exhaustion. I look at him and go straight back to my room and into bed. I slept again and Tscholli succeeded in getting my temperature under control by the afternoon. At our final pre-match meeting, our coach Dragoslav Stepanovic asked me if I can play. And I say yes with complete conviction.

I don’t remember much about the game in the evening. We go 1-0 up in the second half through a header from Markus Happe and we concede the equaliser from a header in the last minute after Franco Foda gives away possession on the touchline.

On the return flight next morning, I’ve got the shivers, I’m white as a sheet and I fall asleep in my seat. After landing at Cologne/Bonn airport, our club doctor, Dr. Sepp Schmitt, sent me straight to his wife’s surgery, she’s a lung specialist. And that confirms what I actually suspected: pneumonia! I am confined to bed and my body fights for a week with my high temperature.

So, my stand-in keeper and long-term roommate Dick Heinen finally gets his chance. The next two Bundesliga matches end in a 1-0 defeat at home to Borussia Mönchengladbach and a 2-0 defeat in Frankfurt. The gap to the league leaders Bayern Munich grows to six points after those two games. Dirk plays well in both matches so it’s not down to him that we lost the two games.

I leave my bed for the first time between those two matches on Wednesday 10 March. I have a short walk in the garden and prepare myself mentally for the return match against Benfica on Tuesday. We go to our training camp at the sports college in Hennef, train there on Monday afternoon and we have warm-up session on Tuesday morning. I get through both well. I’m ready for the match.

We have our final pre-match meeting ahead of the game in the afternoon. Before it, coach Dragoslav Stepanovic invites me and Dirk Heinen out of the meeting room and he asks me: “How do you feel?” I reply: “Good!” Stepi: “Okay, then Dirk’s playing!”

I’m stunned and follow the meeting with more or less concentration. I absolutely can’t understand the decision given that I feel much better than in the first leg and due to the two defeats in the Bundesliga with Dirk in goal. However, I see one of the best games in Bayer 04’s history from the bench in the evening. The 4-4 scoreline and the end-to-end action thrill the spectators in the stadium as well as the viewers in front of the television.

When Bernd Schuster makes it 2-0 on 58 minutes it all seems to be over but the Portuguese pull a goal back straightaway and equalise two minutes later from a corner. When Benfica take the lead on 78 minutes, nobody gives the Werkself a chance. But substitute Paulo Sergio sets up the equaliser for Ulf Kirsten on 80 minutes and he has to be pulled off the fence by his teammates. He celebrates a bit too long and we need a goal to go through. That comes two minutes later – the crowd go wild. But the joy unfortunately only lasts for three minutes with another equaliser at 4-4 and the final whistle five minutes later that leaves the team and fans in a state of shock.