After 13 years again the premier class
© Imago
This Champions League comeback for Kasper Hjulmand has it all. Not only that the 53-year-old is immediately challenged in the premier class on Thursday (6:45 p.m./DAZN) in the first away game as a coach of Bayer Leverkusen. At FC Copenhagen, the former Danish national coach also goes back home. The new Bayer coach of sports director Simon Rolfes was already getting the extracic motivation before his commitment.
“Even in the first phone call we had, I immediately told him that you know the first away game in the Champions League is in Copenhagen,” revealed Rolfes before departure to the Danish capital. “Of course, this game is a big deal in Denmark. If we are there, I will probably feel a little more about it,” said Hjulmand.
Because it goes in the parks, where he played a number of games with his home country as a national coach and where the current Wolfsburg Christian Eriksen suffered a cardiac arrest a little more than four years ago. Denmark lost that European Championship game against Finland under dramatic circumstances with 0: 1, but then moved into the semi -finals. “It is strange to get back into the park and play the first Champions League game in Copenhagen,” said Hjulmand.
For the first time in 13 years, Hjulmand is the highest stage that European club football has to offer. In 2012, the later coach of the 1st FSV Mainz 05 with FC Nordsjaelland failed in the group phase of the Champions League. With Bayer, the successor of two-month mission understanding Erik Ten Hag is supposed to move in at least into the knockout phase-XXL break or not. “The fact that we get on in the Champions League is the clear goal,” said Rolfes.
Clarify tricky personnel questions at Bayer Leverkusen
With the peculiarities of this huge new beginning after the departure of master maker Xabi Alonso (to Real Madrid) and several top performers around Florian Wirtz (for FC Liverpool), Hjulmand is immediately confronted as a Bavarian coach in his first days. Actually, careful to quickly give the retired squad to security and stability after the trace of ten HAG, Hjulmand is involuntarily forced to rotate in a neuralgic position.
Execiel Palacios is not only a defensive midfielder in Copenhagen. The Argentine world champion lacks the runner -up for months because of a serious adductor injury. In addition to captain Robert Andrich, 25 million euro shopping Equi Fernández could play on the six. However, the Palacios replacement for the Champions League was not nominated by midfield droutin Jonas Hofmann, but central defender Jeanuël Belocian. This is made possible by a new UEFA regulation.
On Sunday in the league against Borussia Mönchengladbach, Andrich and Fernández are then missing. This also makes the personnel puzzle in the still fragile squad structure for Copenhagen tricky. Rolfes is still certain that with Hjulmand the path taken in the league in the league against Frankfurt (3: 1). “More clarity in our game, even more intensity” Rolfes saw against Eintracht.