Werkself surprise bag
“The rivalry is still there”
11/01/2025 – 12:03 p.mReading time: 4 minutes
After the upheaval at Bayer Leverkusen, the Werkself have become a real miracle bag for FC Bayern. Kompany warns urgently about a Bayer star.
The face of the Bayer Leverkusen team, which was completely revamped after numerous high-profile departures in the summer, has almost completely changed. In addition to head coach Xabi Alonso, Florian Wirtz, Granit Xhaka, Jeremie Frimpong and Jonathan Tah, who moved to FC Bayern, have left the club.
Alejandro Grimaldo, on the other hand, is still one of the Werkself’s defining figures. The Spaniard has also made a lasting impression on Bayern head coach Vincent Kompany with his free-kick skills. Accordingly, Kompany warned urgently about Grimaldo before the duel with Leverkusen on Saturday (from 6:30 p.m. in the live ticker on t-online) in Munich.
“The truth is that there are no stupid fouls, that he may not have an incredible free kick day and that the goalkeeper helps us in these situations. That’s all you can do,” said the Belgian when asked about Grimaldo’s shooting strength and added with a smile: “I just hope that there are no dangerous free kicks.”
After all, Grimaldo is considered one of the best shooters in Europe. In his total of seven goals this season, the left-back has already scored four times from free kicks. Most recently on Wednesday in the 4-2 win after extra time in the cup against second division club SC Paderborn. At least with Grimaldo, Bayern know exactly what to expect in the duel with Leverkusen. Apart from that, Bayer is currently a kind of surprise bag for Bavaria, where you never really know what’s really inside.
In any case, there isn’t much left of the team that knocked Bayern off the championship throne in the 2023/24 season and even won the double with the DFB Cup. The painful thoughts of Leverkusen’s great triumphs have not been forgotten at FC Bayern, even though Kompany and his team managed to bring the championship trophy back to Munich last season.
“The rivalry is still there. It still lives in our group,” said Kompany. “It remains an absolute top game in the Bundesliga.” He did not fail to mention that experts had speculated in the spring before Bayern’s two round of 16 duels in the Champions League with Leverkusen about who was the favorite. And Bayern even partially denied this status under the impression of the 0-0 draw in the previous league game, which was clearly dominated by Leverkusen.