Last-minute equalisers, great beer and winter weather: My weekend watching European Football
Three days, three games and two countries: From Mainz to Leverkusen to Anderlecht in one weekend.
934 miles. That was the distance travelled from my nearest football stadium – Stamford Bridge – through the Euro Tunnel, via France, Belgium and the Netherlands to get to Mainz’s MEWA Arena. A two-hour trip to Leverkusen’s BayArena followed. Then a return to Belgium to visit Anderlecht’s Lotto Park before finally returning home to the Bridge.
My Dad, who is the reason I fell in love with football when I was five years old, and I were not only making this escapade the tick-off stadiums; we were attending three games across Friday, Saturday and Sunday, a feat I, nor my Dad, had ever done before.
On Friday night was the Bundesliga clash between Mainz 05 and Hertha Berlin. On Saturday afternoon, Bayer Leverkusen vs Werder Bremen. And we finished off with a late Sunday night kick-off for Anderlecht vs. K.V. Kortrijk in the Belgian Pro League.
The main reason for this trip was returning to Germany to watch Bundesliga football. I'd had the urge from the moment I had left Borussia Park in August of 2019 following Chelsea’s final pre-season friendly against Borussia Monchengladbach.
Along with the beginning of my love affair with Pilsner, specifically Bitburger, the small glimpse of German football I got that day was enlightening. Even for a pre-season game, the noise from the Nordkurve (the stand behind the opposing goal) was louder than the majority of Premier League games I had attended.
I also feel if have you a role in football media – as I do – it is your obligation to read, learn, and at times step out of your comfort zone. This trip would certainly provide me the opportunity to do. Waking up at 3am on Friday morning, we travelled through the Euro Tunnel so we could have a little time to rest in our hotel in Mainz before making the trip over to our first game.
Game 1: Mainz 1-1 Hertha Berlin
The MEWA arena is a relatively new stadium. Opened in 2011 after replacing the Bruchwegstadion, which now hosts the club’s youth football, it's named after the club’s influential coach Wolfgang Frank.
Frank managed the club in two spells in the late nineties and his tactical ideas would lay the foundation for a generation of German coaches who would go onto succeed in European football. He most controversially removed the sweeper role, a common trend in Germany at the time, and introduced zonal marking in place of man-marking from set-pieces and promoting more video analysis.
Jurgen Klopp, who was Mainz head coach from 2001-2008, described Frank as the coach who “influenced me the most.” As noted in Raphael Honigstein’s book Klopp: Bring The Noise.
From a Chelsea perspective, this first stop also brought me to the early years of another famous coach: Thomas Tuchel. The German got his first Bundesliga job at Mainz in 2009 and transformed the recently-promoted side, getting them to a ninth placed finish in his first season before qualifying for the Europa League in his second.
Like Klopp, Tuchel’s next job would be at Borussia Dortmund before both would arrive in the Premier League. Klopp in 2015, Tuchel in 2021.
The MEWA beckons you across this vast open space, with green separating the wide walkways that led you into the open feel of the stadium’s surroundings. The openings between each of the four stands give you an early glimpse into the stadium, its sea of red seats and pristine turf.
Our hotel was not too far away and the free shuttle on matchday from the local train station made getting there and back painless. We were soon hit by a trend that would dominate the weekend: the change in temperature.
The open plan nature of the stadium made the gusts of wind fierce and the bursts of showers intense before kick-off. It turned a mid-September game into that would have been more at home in November.
I was very glad that my beloved Bitburger was the main beer of choice at both German grounds, so we took shelter from the rain in a pop-up tent outside the ground to drink pilsner and eat some Bratwurst, whilst techno music played from a speaker and TV screens showed the build-up to that evening’s Bundesliga 2 game between SV Sandhuasen and Hannover 96.
In both drink and food, the step-up in edibility and quality was much welcomed. I rarely ever eat inside Stamford Bridge, the cost and bland nature of most things make it a complete rip-off - and sometimes leave your stomach regretting it the day after.
Once inside the wide concourse, we remarked on the number of people wearing some form of Mainz memorabilia. Be that shirts, scarfs, pins, hats, or bringing their own pillows. Out of all three games, Mainz felt like a community coming together to support their local club, it really felt like an event and that was replicated in the stands.
The pre-match build-up was also the most impressive of the weekend. With a very energetic stadium announcer rallying up all four stands, sprinting manically across the pitch repeatedly, as the light show began and “You’ll Never Walk Alone” played before the teams emerged.
There was an added emotion to this game as Hertha coach, Sandro Schwartz, was returning to the club at which he was both player and coach. Before leaving the hotel for the MEWA, in flicking the channels, I stopped on a report previewing the game that included footage of Schwartz laughing with a younger Tuchel in front of a tactical board.
For Mainz coach Bo Svensson, the chatter from the UK had been that the Dane was one of the potential candidates to fill Brighton’s vacant head coach role following Graham Potter’s move to Chelsea.
The game itself lacked consistent quality with Mainz falling behind to a Lucas Tousart header in the 30th minute of the first-half, aided by a lack of communication in the home defence.
My Dad and I both chuckled consistently as the corner away to our end where Hertha’s support were stationed continued to let off flares triggering the stadium announcer to reprimand them. This did not stop the flares, eventually leading us to the theory that the announcer had pre-recorded his message and was just disapprovingly hitting a button in frustration for the rest of the evening.
There were two players who stood out, one on each side. In the first half, Hertha’s left winger Chidera Ejuke was instrumental in their best play. Curling the cross in for Tousart’s opener and coming close to scoring a second, forcing Robin Zentner into a fine stop.
For Mainz, it was 30-year-old Lee Jae-sung who offered calm and precision in a mostly frantic game that turned into a repetitively direct affair in the second half as Mainz chased a leveller. Lee looked tidy in possession and continued to find good positions, like Ejuke, it would be no shock he would be involved in the 94th minute equaliser that summed up the game.
A long ball into the box hooked back by Lee, headed down by Karim Onisiwo for substitute Anthony Caci to strike home his first Bundesliga goal. Limbs flailed and keeper Zentner jumped onto the melee of celebrating players in what proved to be the final kick
Game 2: Bayer Leverkusen 1-1 Werder Bremen
It took a couple of two hours to reach Leverkusen from Mainz. This time our hotel was situated a street away from a Bayer fan shop that was sadly closed. Peering inside it was filled with old club memorabilia and table football.
The BayArena was within walking distance and that gave us the chance to see more of the city, soon passing the club shop situated near a shopping centre. I had wanted to get souvenirs from the trip and given my Chelsea connection, I had to get a Callum Hudson-Odoi printed shirt, going for the black second kit rather than the all-red.
We walked through a flurry of trees before the circular bowl-like frame on the top of the stadium began to stand out above the highways we were walking under.
Out of the three grounds, BayArena was probably the most impressive in terms of scale but lacked the community feel of the MEWA. That was partly down to it being situated next to a busy road, not leaving the space that Mainz or Monchengladbach have for more vendors or places to mingle.
As outsiders, we were constantly picking up little things and contrasting them with our experiences back at Chelsea and English football. One of them was the pub culture we have in the UK, where most in area close to a stadium are packed on a matchday.
At Mainz, given the stadium was not surrounded by streets, this obviously was not possible. But after doing a loop on the stadium to ascertain where our entrance was we walked up the road, passing the bright green shirts and scarfs of the travelling Bremen supporters, whose presence would be felt in a majority of the stadium.
We soon found the closest thing to a pub, a small bakery that had set up some covering, put out tables and was playing some music. Inside they were selling Bitburger, so we duly obliged, buying two small glass bottles and going outside among Bayer fans and one sole Bremen supporter decked out in club colours, yet there was no fuss.
Drinking alcohol from a glass bottle with one away fan mixed in with a crowd of home supporters within walking distance of the stadium are alien concepts to English football.
Despite the hefty Polizei presence near the away entrance, we soon noticed a number of Bremen fans going in the same entrance as us – again a bizarre sight. Then we realised they were taking the same steps as us to the upper tier. Once we arrived to the concourse, there was concern I had purchased tickets in an away section, but we soon realised most of the stadium would be mixed, with Bremen’s large support sticking out in the red surroundings.
“Could you imagine that over here?” was how one person responded over text when I told them of mixed fans at a top flight game.
Again, the food here was a step above anything I’d had at the Bridge. We had Currywurst, which is Bratwurst cut into small chunks covered in curry sauce with chips.
With our beer and food, we went to our seats which were a couple of rows from the front of the upper tier, giving us an amazing overview of the whole stadium, fitting for Champions League football that had been played only four days earlier when Leverkusen beat Atletico Madrid 2-0.
There were differences in the experience to Mainz, there was not the same obvious build-up to kick-off that rallied the home crowd. The ultras behind the goal to our left did not start making noise until a few minutes before kick-off, compared to Mainz who were in place a full 30 minutes before.
It was nice hearing Hudson-Odoi’s name introduced in the European way. The first name announced before the crowd responds with the surname, which we naturally joined for our Cobham graduate.
The quality of football on show was certainly better than Friday, with the likes of Hudson-Odoi, Patrick Schick, Jeremie Frimpong and Moussa Diaby all in Bayer’s starting lineup.
Bayer have not had a good start to the season, sitting in the bottom three before kick-off, having lost four of their opening seven league games, losing their three home games of the season for the first time ever. The win on Tuesday was the perfect inspiration for a turning point, but they did not take it.
Frimpong missed one of the easiest chances you will see this season, impressively passing up a mostly open goal after Diaby’s shot had been spilled by Bremer keeper Jiri Pavlenka.
We finally got our moment to savour not long into the second half when Kerem Demirbay received a pass on the edge of the box, opened up his body and curled a left-footed effort around opposing bodies and beyond the acrobatics of Pavlenka. Demirbay had scored a wonderful free-kick away at Hertha on the previous weekend, making this effort look tame but still aesthetically pleasing.
But Bremen capitalised on Bayer’s lack of confidence to see a game out, Milos Veljkovic bundling home a rebound from a corner that was not a great moment for Bayer keeper Lukas Hradecky, turning a good reaction save from Niclas Fullkrug into an unconvincing flap that ended in Veljkovic’s effort squirming through into the net.
Not only did that moment spark noise from the corner where Bremen supporters were situated, but around us too and across the stadium as pockets of green proudly jumped out of their seats. This did not cause any animosity or arguments, again reflecting a more casual approach to fan tribalism.
The closing 15 minutes of the game reflected the general stereotype of Bundesliga football, quite chaotic and transition heavy with both teams only one pass away from breaking the opposition’s press.
Sardar Azmoun hit the bar from a free-kick for Bayer, whilst substitute Oliver Burke could have snatched it for Bremen in the 97th minute. Our second 1-1 at full-time, sparking one friend from home claiming we had brought a curse from the UK. Not only in the miserable weather but the 1-1 we had watched between Chelsea and Salzburg two days before our trip.
There was one more game to go to disprove that theory, but we made our walk back to the hotel, eating some dinner and trying to catch some of Monchengladbach’s dominant 3-0 win over RB Leipzig and Spurs’ 6-2 thrashing of Leicester.
Game 3: Anderlecht 4-1 Kortrijk
The final leg of our trip saw us swap countries to Belgium. Arriving at a hotel on a very industrial part of town, we were soon informed that Sunday was a no-car day up until 7pm, making travel into the city a little challenging.
That meant our taxi to and from the stadium lacked the local sights we got from Mainz and Leverkusen. But still, Lotto Park did not come without its own quirks and unique memories to take away.
Most notable was how it was almost hidden behind trees, tucked away behind streets of tall buildings and flats, not looming over its surroundings as many stadiums do. We arrived as the gates were opening and again were hit by the cold temperatures, soon finding shelter in the upper tier concourse, shielded from the rain that started to pour.
I glimpsed a framed photo of Romelu Lukaku celebrating in an Anderlecht shirt. The place where it all began for one of Europe’s well-known names.
The Anderlecht line-up provided three familiar names from the Premier League: striker Fabio Silva on loan from Wolves; defender Jan Verthonghen who was at Spurs for eight years; Wesley Hoedt who left Southampton in 2021.
As we made our way to our row, we spotted a group of fans where having trouble pinning down a banner over the front of the upper tier. The strong wind kept blowing it back into the stand, eventually the fans around us decided to take it down, leaving it on the floor.
Before kick-off, we helped lift it up. The sign was in respect to Michel Verschueren, one of the club’s most admired and longest-serving managers who passed away at 91 the previous week. Leading the club through two spells of service, (1963-1969 and 1980-2003) winning 11 league titles and achieving European success. His family were clapped onto the pitch as banners were held at both ends of the ground, his name repeatedly sung before a minute of silence.
The game did not disappoint, with Anderlecht not looking like a team who had lost four of their opening nine league games.
Granted 14th placed K.V. Kortrijk did not offer much, consistently overawed by Anderlecht’s superior quality and movement out wide and a level of intelligence the visitors could not match.
An interesting tactical trend I noticed throughout our weekend was the prevalence of a 3-man defence. 4 out of the 6 teams we watched used one, Hertha and Bayer the only exceptions.
Anderlecht used their wing-backs well in the first-half with Yari Verschaeren pulling the strings from central midfield. The 21-year-old certainly looks like a player destined for bigger things, the ball sticking to his boot like glue in tight areas as he danced past challenges.
He opened the scoring following consistent Anderlecht pressure and nice build-up again using width against a low-block.
Another player who dazzled not only us, but the home crowd was 16-year-old substitute Julien Duranville, who had come through the club’s academy and made his step up to senior football this season.
He got the loudest cheer of any substitute coming on all weekend. His trickery and risk on the ball prompted a few chuckles of disbelief from those around us.
At half-time with the game still only 1-0, we were both concerned about our 1-1 curse striking for the third time. But those fears were put to rest in a dominant second half where Anderlecht pulled away. Majeed Ashimeru heading from a well worked near-post flick from a corner, with Michael Murillo contributing to his second headed assist of the game.
There was a small moment of concern only two minutes later when Kortrijk pulled one back in comical fashion. Hoedt tried to smash a clearance away from a bundle at a corner below us, only for the ball to hit Faiz Seleman in the face and go in to make it 2-1.
But it would be Vertonghen to make up for that misfortune, heading in from another well-worked set piece delivered by 36-year-old Lior Refaelov, who also had an impressive evening.
I thought I had fully escaped the VAR nonsense and poor officiating in the Premier League until Anderlecht’s fourth and final goal was preceded by frustration.
A dangerous counter-attack led by Ashimeru found Refaelov driving into the box, soon fouled by some desperate defending from Tsuyoshi Watanabe. Even if we were down the other end, it was clear what had happened. Watanabe buried his face into the turf in disappointment.
But suddenly beer was angrily flung from behind us over the stand. The referee had not just opted against pointing to the spot, he had booked Refaelov for simulation. After a flurry of disbelief and a stupidly long VAR check where the screen appeared to be frozen, the decision was overturned, the penalty given and Refaelov cooly struck home. We got our home win!
As we made our trip back to the UK on the day of the Queen’s state funeral, we both reflected how different all three games were in tone, experience and atmosphere.
One of the things we noted was the differences between English fan culture and those in Germany and Belgium. The lack of “player worship” with songs and chants being much more repetitive and continuous, rather than the waves of English fandom that could admittedly see periods of quiet before bursts of noise and flailing limbs.
Both have their pros and cons, I enjoy the improvisation in English culture of reacting to the game as it goes. But there is an undeniably impressive aspect to the unified noise coming from the MEWA 30 minutes before kick-off or the unrelenting drums at Lotto Park, if that your thing.
The beer and food were certainly better and some of the football was highly enjoyable too. If you have the means to, step out of your comfort zone every now and then, at the very least it will make you appreciate the quirks of your own club.
Thanks for reading. Check out my videos on Chelsea on my YouTube channel, and read more of my work at football.london
Really fun article about your trip, Daniel!!