It's a Tuesday night on 25 August 1992: The champions of Germany VfB Stuttgart visit the Ulrich Haberland Stadium on the third matchday of the season. After two 1-1 draws on the first two matchdays at home against newly promoted FC Saarbrücken and away to Werder Bremen (the goalscorer in both games: Andreas Thom) there was a change of fortune in front of a crowd of 15,000. And what a change it was.
The scoreline is 2-0 after five minutes and the brace was netted by: Andreas Thom. In the second half, he makes it 3-0 at the end of a counter-attack and up to this day he holds the record for scoring the first five goals in a season. Joel Pohjanpalo came close to Andi Thom's record with four goals in the first two matchdays in the 2016/17 season. The substitute Jupp Nehl scores the fourth goal to seal a successful start to the season.
The starting eleven: Vollborn – Wörns, Foda, Kree, Fischer, Scholz, Lupescu (Radschuweit 58’), Hapal (Nehl 64’), von Ahlen, Kirsten, Thom
There was a mixed start to the season five years later: A defeat at Schalke and the hard-fought home win against Bochum was followed by another away defeat in Stuttgart. 13 August brings the first Champions League qualifier against Dynamo Tbilisi that ends in a brilliant 6-1 win for Bayer 04. The next Bundesliga match is played on 23 August.
The current league leaders Karlsruher SC are the visitors and they take the lead on four minutes from a freekick by World Cup winner Thomas Häßler. And then? Bayer 04 reacts as so often under coach Christoph Daum: with furious attacks and incredible energy. The Werkself lead to-one at half-time thanks to goals from Erik Meijer and Niko Kovac and Bayer 04 are unstoppable in the second 45. Ulf Kirsten with two goals, Hans-Peter Lehnhoff and Paulo Rink score to make it 6-1 and the league leaders travel back to Baden after a heavy defeat.
The Bayer 04 line-up: Heinen – Wörns, Je. Nowotny, Happe, Lehnhoff (Emerson 74’), N. Kovac (R. Kovac 88’), Ramelow, Beinlich, Lottner, Meijer, Kirsten (Rink 60’)
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.
Show moreSince 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.
Show moreIn this video you can watch impressive and important goals in the history of Bayer 04 in the month of May. It is not always about the beauty of the goals but also about remembering special games and players.
Show moreThere were high summer temperatures in Leverkusen on 25 May 1985. Matchday 32 brings FC Köln to the Ulrich Haberland Stadium with only 13,000 spectators at the derby. That is primarily due to the Werkself with Bayer 04 rarely impressing in that season and they are eleventh in the table before the game just three points ahead of sixteenth, the play-off spot. But with the two points for a win rule back then – two points were awarded for a win – and with the significantly better goal difference, the Werkself need every point to get out of trouble.
Show moreIt was all or nothing on the final matchday in the Verbandsliga in the 1974/75 season. Only now would it be decided who were champions and thereby participate in the promotion games to the Bundesliga 2 North. The earlier rivals Viktoria Köln, SC Jülich 10 and Bonner SC have fallen by the wayside.
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