Record case numbers in Germany mean one top club is back
playing without a crowd and others will have thousands of fewer fans this
weekend.
Leipzig is on the front line of the latest wave of the
pandemic in Germany in the eastern state of Saxony, where infection rates are
the highest and vaccination rates the lowest compared to other regions. With
intensive care facilities under strain, state authorities have banned crowds
from sports events.
That means Leipzig will host the Bundesliga’s first game in
an empty stadium for months when Bayer Leverkusen visits on Sunday. That also
affects its Champions League game against Manchester City next month. Clubs in
other states are increasingly under restrictions, too. Bayern Munich can fill
its stadium to only 25% capacity against Arminia Bielefeld on Saturday.
Just a month ago, the picture was very different.
Germany’s vaccination program was going well and entry rules
for games — generally restricted to people who were fully vaccinated, recently
recovered from the virus or with a negative test — were being broadly obeyed.
Bayern celebrated having a full house of 75,000 for the first time since March
2020 on Oct. 23 when it played Hoffenheim.
Since then, case numbers have continued to hit record levels
in German society, and soccer has not escaped.
Leipzig coach Jesse Marsch and goalkeeper Peter Gulasci
won’t be at their empty-stadium game against Leverkusen because the club said
this week they tested positive. Of the four German clubs playing in the
Champions League this week, all were missing at least one player with a
positive test.
Leipzig shrugged off the disruption in a 5-0 demolition of
Belgian club Brugge on Wednesday, but questions remain over the future of
Marsch with the club seventh on the Bundesliga table and unable to qualify for
the Champions League knockout rounds.
Bayern’s reduced crowd will see the team attempt to bounce
back from a shock 2-1 loss at Augsburg last week which reduced the title lead
to just one point. A threadbare Bayern squad clung on to beat Dynamo Kyiv 2-1
on Tuesday but virus cases and injuries mean coach Julian Nagelsmann has few
tactical options and can’t rest key players. Against that backdrop, even
relegation-threatened Bielefeld becomes a trickier opponent.
Bayern’s woes deepened on Wednesday when midfielder Joshua
Kimmich and backup striker Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting tested positive for the
coronavirus. Kimmich became the face of Germany’s debate over vaccine hesitancy
last month, and a political talking point in parliament, when he said in a TV
interview he wasn’t vaccinated and had reservations about vaccines against the
virus.
Other clubs are on a collision course with their own
players.
Starting this month, German employers are no longer obliged
to pay workers during their quarantine period if they’re unvaccinated and
identified as a close contact of someone who tested positive. Several clubs
have said they’ll follow this policy and Bayern has been widely reported to be
considering this approach.
Elsewhere this weekend, Borussia Dortmund takes on Wolfsburg
in a game between teams having similar weeks. Both lost in the Champions League
midweek — eliminating Dortmund and leaving Wolfsburg unlikely to qualify — and
both are without key players who tested positive for the virus after returning
from the Belgian national team. In Dortmund’s case, it’s forward Thorgan
Hazard, who had been crucial during Erling Haaland’s injury absence, while
Wolfsburg is missing goalkeeper Koen Casteels.
Third-placed Freiburg surprised many by staying in the Champions League places after a strong start to the season but it’s on the slide after losing two in a row. A visit to promoted Bochum offers a chance to turn things around.
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