Hallo! and welcome along to another Friday in Germany with Nick. RB Leipzig haven’t got off to a fantastic start in the league, and have plenty of work to do in their UEFA Cup tie with Napoli. Will things improve this week?…
We sit ninth currently, but have only played nine games, so I’m not getting worried just yet.
We start with our UEFA Cup second leg with Napoli, where we trail 4-3 on aggregate. We race into a 3-0 lead, but lose Penksa just before half time. We cope though, and the Iceman completes a hat trick in a great turnaround, and Hamburg await next.
With Penksa out for a month, and Hannig failing to make an impression, I bring in Manuel Neira for a measly £34k to provide some right-sided cover…
While we might be flying in Europe, we’re brought back down to earth with a bump in the league by fourteenth-placed Zwickau as the early-season blip continues…
It takes us an hour, but we finally get our act together against Leverkusen after going close several times. We stay ninth, but the board are now telling me they expect a higher league position, they have short memories…
In the capital, we concede from a corner, but the Thai-phoon levels with our first effort on target. There’s plenty of chances in the second half but we just can’t put one away. At least it’s not a loss, and it actually moves us up a place.
Back to Europe, and the first of three meetings with Hamburg this week. We trail at the end of a shaky first half, and the second isn’t much better, as we concede three more. But Bäumer comes off the bench to offer us a glimmer of hope with two away goals…
Next is the cup game with Uerdingen. We have a goal disallowed in between two that count, and lead 2-0 at half time. The iceman gets his second to finish them off, as we stroll through to book a quarter-final date with Zwickau.
Jesse has been impressive in the few games he’s played, but I feel he’ll benefit by playing more games on loan, so I let him join Werder…
Back to the league, and we chip away at a stubborn Stuttgart defence and keeper, and go in for half time 2-0 up. Nat King Goal completes a treble, and Leonídas adds a late one to return us to winning ways.
Hannig rejoins BMG for £350k, so I make a small loss. He was a nice lad, but found his game time limited and couldn’t dislodge Penksa.
Coincidentally we travel to Mönchengladbach next, and Hannig starts up front for them. Matthaus Jr sees red, but we take the lead not long after, and the iceman’s strike is enough to secure the three points in a good away win.
The Iceman gives us the perfect start in the second leg against Hamburg, but our lead is short-lived, and it stays that way for the remainder. Klinsmann Jr gets a debut near the end, but our first European adventure is over.
It’s a busy first half against Bielefeld, twice they lead, and twice we equalise. We’re in the ascendancy in the second half though, and it finally shows as Leonidas regains us the lead before Rose puts the cherry on the cake.
Back to having one right-back for a while…
1860 Munich all but ended our title hopes last season, so you can imagine my delight at pulling their pants down in front of our home crowd. The win takes us up two places to sixth.
I’d be silly to change a side that’s just thrashed the second-placed team, so we’re unchanged for our third and final game this week against leaders Hamburg. They’ve an early goal ruled out, and although we finish the stronger side, it’s a stalemate and a good point.
In true champ style, we dominate the first half against rock-bottom Rostock, and they score with their first shot at goal. But we show what we’re made of and the front men do their thing and turn it around…
We do seem to like playing at Dortmund, and Kirovski’s early opener does nothing but fire us up, and the iceman and Thai-phoon blow them away. It’s still a shock defeat though, when will we get the credit we deserve?!
Leonidas is being a twat again, unlucky mate, I’ve got you for at least three more years yet…
Lastly this week is a visit from Kaiserslautern. We’ve a goal disallowed on 20 minutes but it’s soon forgotten, and after visitors’ mini revival, we come back to life with two more goals to sign off for the winter break in style…
Well… an astonishing unbeaten run of ten games has remarkably put us top of the league going into the winter break, although Bayern have two games in-hand. I’ll take that every single day of the week though, I just hope we can stay there…
The winter break sees some big offers for some of my prize assets, but they’re going nowhere.
Bäumer decides to join Penksa and Leonídas in the twat brigade, but I’m having none of it.
Klinsmann Jr joins second division Saarbrücken on loan…
I decide to let young Guido join Frankfurt. He was another that had promise, but I just couldn’t give him the game time.
After selling Hannig and Eichin, we’re now one short of our twelve-German player quota, so I sign this man for £110k…
Good job I’ve just bought a right-back…
That’s your lot for this week. We may be out of Europe, but we’ve put an indifferent start to our league campaign behind us, and climbed to the top of the table, and we’re still going strong in the cup. See you next week, Tschüss!