Match of the month I: From a dream – First the Bökelberg, then TV

1996/97: First the Bökelberg, then TV

A week after the home win against Werder Bremen in the 1996 – 97 season, the Werkself head to the Bökelberg in Mönchengladbach. With five games to play, there is still the chance of a first league title with a three-point gap to league leaders Bayern Munich and a seven-goals worse goal difference. The Werkself get off to a flying start at that legendary stadium: Niko Kovac puts the visitors ahead after 40 seconds.  With aggressive in challenges and full motivation, the Werkself have Gladbach on the ropes in the first half and they lead 2-0 at half-time with the second goal scored by Ulf Kirsten. Borussia pressed our team back into their own half after the restart. The hosts pull a goal back on 65 minutes and then, to the dismay of all Leverkusen players, the equaliser comes in the last minute of the game.

The next day all the Bayer 04 players are sitting in front of the TV watching the Munich derby between 1860 and FC Bayern. With the score at 2-2, the Bayern player Christian Ziege is shown a second yellow card and 1860 go 3-2 up on 82 minutes through Jörg Böhme. Lothar Matthäus is sent off a minute later again with a second yellow card for FC Bayern. However, Carsten Jancker nets the leveller for the nine men on 88 minutes.

For me, that is still the crucial matchday in the title race as a win against Borussia Mönchengladbach at the same time as a deserved defeat for FC Bayern against 1860 Munich would have put us level on points with the league leaders. Whether that would have been enough in the end is debatable but the chances would have been greater. The 4-0 defeat in the derby at FC Köln on matchday 33 finally settled matters and Bayern were the champions of Germany. We were left with second place and a slot in the Champions League qualifiers, which saw us progress in August after two games against Dinamo Tbilisi. In the final home game of the season against VfL Bochum, I was able to make Bundesliga appearance 399 and for me it was my best season at Bayer 04.