Heidenheim battle back for 2-2 draw with Elversberg in relegation playoff

HEIDENHEIM, Germany, May 22 (Reuters) - Bundesliga club Heidenheim scored twice in three minutes in the second half to come from two goals down and snatch a 2-2 draw against visitors Elversberg in the relegation playoff first leg on Thursday.
Elversberg, third in the second division, stunned Heidenheim to go 2-0 up by halftime thanks to goals from Lukas Petkov in the 18th minute and Fisnik Asllani, the team's top scorer this season.
Heidenheim, who finished in 16th place in the Bundesliga, had a goal disallowed on the stroke of halftime and hit the woodwork early in the second half before Tim Siersleben pulled one back in the 62nd.
Just two minutes later Mathias Honsak drew Heidenheim level, scoring on the rebound as the hosts got 14 efforts towards goal in a strong second half.
The return leg in Elversberg is on Monday.
VfL Bochum and Holstein Kiel were relegated from the Bundesliga while Cologne and Hamburg SV won automatic promotion to the top division.

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The Independent

2 hours ago

• The Independent

The key attribute that explains why Liverpool signed Florian Wirtz – and why he'll succeed

There was a time when Liverpool looked to a German prodigy at Bayer Leverkusen as they sought to add another dimension to their attack but didn't get him. That time was 2017, the Bundesliga wunderkind was Julian Brandt and the reason was that Jurgen Klopp, initially an advocate of his compatriot, was persuaded to switch his attentions to Mohamed Salah by Michael Edwards and the recruitment team assembled by Fenway Sports Group. Fast forward eight years, when Brandt has had a fine career but Salah an exceptional one, and Liverpool have brought in the next generation of German playmaker. Florian Wirtz has cost an initial £100m; it could rise to a British record £116m if add-ons are triggered. It is already a club high: it could be a third overall record set in the FSG era after the most expensive prices then ever paid for a goalkeeper (Alisson, £65m) and defender (Virgil van Dijk, £75m). FSG can make the statement signing and balance the books. When they go big, it tends to be for a player they feel will be transformative. Before his departure, Klopp admitted there were times he wished Liverpool had spent more. But he bought into the general policy. His relative frugality helped finance the Wirtz deal. So did the summer of his departure when Arne Slot arrived and Liverpool pocketed a transfer-market profit. But if Wirtz's fee can seem off the scale – only Alisson, Van Dijk and Darwin Nunez have otherwise cost more than £60m – both the broader strategy and his profile render him a classic FSG buy. A couple of years ago, Klopp offered some insight into the criteria. 'The owners really want 200 games at 20 years old,' he said. 'That is pretty difficult. The best way to read it, however, is to say FSG want 23-year-olds with 200 games to their name. Go through many of their bigger and better signings over the last decade and it is roughly accurate. Wirtz will not turn 23 for a year but has 197 club appearances to his name, plus 31 Germany caps. Jeremie Frimpong, a teammate for both Leverkusen and Liverpool, joins at 24 with 245 club games, and 13 appearances for the Netherlands. Milos Kerkez, the left-back set to become their third major summer signing, has 158 matches to his name; 181 if his caps are included. Dominik Szoboszlai came at 22 with the experience of 216 club games, Alexis Mac Allister at 24 with 213, Cody Gakpo at 23 with 195, Sadio Mane at 24 with 197, Salah at 25 with 252, Andy Robertson at 22 with 202, Roberto Firmino at 23 with 191, Diogo Jota at 23 with 213, Ryan Gravenberch with 181 at just 21. Giorgi Mamardashvili, bought last summer at 23, was loaned back to Valencia and has now played 201 matches of club football. Average it out and Klopp's theory stands up. FSG's recruitment policy seems underpinned by several elements. They are signing players whose best days should be ahead of them. Indeed, Liverpool looks a step up for virtually all. Their wages, while they can be substantial – and Wirtz certainly will not come cheap – are likely to be less than those of players a few years older with a stack of major medals to their name. And yet those 200 games, those five or six years of first-team football, offer sufficient evidence for Liverpool to form a meaningful judgement. Some of their arrivals, like Robertson, Jota, Mac Allister, Mane and the target Kerkez, have a grounding in the Premier League. The others tend to have played in the Champions League and one of six major European leagues: in Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Portugal or the Netherlands. They let them learn, improve and make their mistakes elsewhere and then pounce. Their previous club serves as a well-recompensed finishing school. It is notable, though, that for many Liverpool is not their second club, but the third, fourth or fifth. Their formula can have a pertinence. Over the last decade, Liverpool have a high strike rate. That so few of their major buys have failed reflects on the quality of their analysis and decision-making – and Edwards and the off-field transfer specialists can note that the erratic Nunez was more of a Klopp choice – and has enabled them to compete with clubs with bigger budgets. It also stands in contrast to clubs with lower success rates: under Clearlake Capital and Todd Boehly, Chelsea have signed younger, prioritising potential but bringing in players without that body of evidence. Manchester United went through a phase of signing old, on bigger wages, with a lesser resale value. That policy produced Cristiano Ronaldo, Edinson Cavani, Alexis Sanchez, Raphael Varane and Casemiro – what might generously be called mixed returns and an ever-present possibility of decline. Liverpool have rarely deviated from their strategy. Van Dijk was older than most, but has displayed longevity. So was Federico Chiesa, but he was more of an opportunistic punt at a low price. Klopp had to persuade his employers to bring in Wataru Endo at 31. Yet a curiosity of Liverpool's buying is that while their statistics gurus can recruit on attributes; their successful signings do not always appear in the positions they did for previous clubs. To varying degrees, Firmino, Mane, Gini Wijnaldum and Gravenberch have been reinvented. Now there are questions surrounding where Wirtz will play, even if the price tag suggests Liverpool have a plan. They usually do. Every other buy in Liverpool's history has been cheaper. Many in the last ten years have been successes. And if that owes much to the two managers, to the player identification and planning, it also reflects on what can look a low-risk approach to recruitment.

Daily Mail​

3 hours ago

• Daily Mail​

Meet the woman behind Florian Wirtz: Glamorous WAG of Liverpool's new £116million star is a fashion influencer with over 100,000 TikTok followers - and now she's swapping Germany for Merseyside

Florian Wirtz will be joined by his glamourous partner Aaliyah Mohamed after completing his record-breaking £116million move to Liverpool. After weeks of negotiations, the Germany attacking midfielder was unveiled as a Reds player on Friday night, becoming the most expensive British transfer ever amid the hefty price tag he will now carry on his back. Liverpool finally agreed the deal with Bayern with personal terms long not an issue, and Wirtz will hit the ground running in red when the Premier League champions return for pre-season ahead of their title defence. But the 22-year-old will not be heading to Liverpool alone. Though he opts to keep his personal life mostly private, his girlfriend will be joining him on Merseyside to support him in the next stage of his career. Photos of Wirtz and Aaliyah started to emerge last year when she was spotted on the pitch at Bayer Leverkusen's BayArena to celebrate the German side's invincible season under Xabi Alonso. She was then seen out in Germany to support her partner at the European Championship, which saw the Germans fall flat as they lost to eventual winners Spain in the quarter-finals. During the game against France, the influencer, who has over 118,000 followers on TikTok, was seen chatting to Kai Havertz's partner Sophia Webber, as well as Wirtz's father in the stands. Aaliyah's Instagram account is private, but she shares fashion videos to her TikTok followers, often picking up hundreds of thousands of views on her videos. Her followers often flood to the comment section of her videos, with one fan dubbing her 'the prettiest women I have ever seen'. She was also previously snapped by Cologne photographer Jonas Herrlein, which saw her don an outfit of a denim top with white sleeves, accompanied by a skirt. The couple are thought to have started dating in 2022, and Aaliyah has even been seen to accompany Wirtz to games when he has been watching in the stands due to injury. Wirtz, meanwhile, declared his ambition to 'win everything, every year' after making his blockbuster switch from Bayer Leverkusen. He said: 'I would like to win everything, every year! First of all, we have to do our work, I have to make my work. 'In the end, we want to be successful. Last season, Liverpool won the Premier League, so my goal is to win it again and also go further in the Champions League. I'm really ambitious. 'I'm really excited to have a new adventure in front of me. This was also a big point of my thoughts: that I want to have something completely new, to go out of the Bundesliga and join the Premier League.' In a video on Instagram, the 22-year-old added: 'What would I say? I would say, thank you for the support, of course, I also saw it on Instagram or everywhere else that they are wanting me to come. 'I would say thank you for the support and I'm really looking forward to playing in front of them and achieving big things together. 'So yeah, I'm really happy to come and sorry for the long wait.' After a relatively reserved few transfer windows, Liverpool fans have been left slack-jawed by what looks to be an almost perfect transfer window so far. Arne Slot had already signed Wirtz's former Bayer Leverkusen team-mate Jeremie Frimpong for £29.5m. Witrtz and Frimpong were crucial to Leverkusen's invincible domestic double in 2023-24 under Xabi Alonso and were recently on holiday together.

Daily Mirror

3 hours ago

• Daily Mirror

Florian Wirtz's reaction on bench says it all about Liverpool's £116m record buy

Liverpool broke the bank to sign Florian Wirtz from Bayer Leverkusen for £116million, with the 22-year-old already showing he has the character to thrive at the highest level Football recruitment often hinges on the finances, but understanding the true character of a player is a different ball game. Thankfully, Liverpool fans have already been given a glimpse into the temperament of new signing Florian Wirtz. The Merseysiders have splashed out an initial £100million for Wirtz, potentially rising to £116m, and set a new British transfer record. The 22-year-old played a key role in Bayer Leverkusen 's Bundesliga title win under Liverpool legend Xabi Alonso last year, although this season saw the German crown return to Bayern Munich. ‌ And it was during a Champions League round-of-16 match between the two German juggernauts that Wirtz revealed a bit more about his personality. However, it had nothing to do with his performance on the pitch. ‌ TV cameras caught his reaction on the bench after he was substituted while his team were losing 3-0 at the Allianz Arena back in March. Both Wirtz and close pal Jeremie Frimpong, who has also made the move to Anfield this summer, were taken off with the first-leg result seemingly decided. But the reactions of Liverpool's new pair on the Leverkusen bench were markedly different. While footage showed Frimpong staring blankly, Wirtz didn't hide his frustrations moments after being withdrawn as he reacted to his team's impending defeat that ultimately led to their Champions League exit. With only nine minutes left on the clock, the maestro couldn't contain his frustration and unleashed a tirade at his team-mate. Wirtz was visibly enraged, spitting and burying his face in his hands in fury, acutely aware that he, or perhaps his team, had not measured up in this crucial moment. The Liverpool Echo reports how the incident is telling of the high standards Wirtz sets, not just for himself but for those around him, too. He's previously lauded Liverpool as one of the "top three clubs in the world," highlighting his ambition for what could be achieved in future years. In an era where young footballers are often slated for lacking grit due to their hefty pay packages, Wirtz showed he doesn't fit that stereotype. And his reaction to being taken off, even during a heavy loss, underscores his relentless desire to make an impact on the pitch at all times. ‌ He'll undoubtedly be demanding excellence under Arne Slot, who's already making his mark on the squad this summer. The prompt acquisition of Frimpong softens the blow of Trent Alexander-Arnold's departure and provides Wirtz with a familiar face in the changing room. Meanwhile, the Reds are nearing a £40m deal for Bournemouth's Milos Kerkez. The Hungarian sensation has been turning heads with his stellar displays on the south coast and seems poised to take over from Andy Robertson at Anfield in the long run. Slot seems to be keen on bolstering his defensive line-up, with Marc Guehi also believed to be back in Liverpool's sights. Jarell Quansah could well be off to Leverkusen, and Crystal Palace's star defender Guehi is tipped to replace him should that be the case. ‌ The Bundesliga has been dominated by a couple of teams in recent years, but Wirtz could face stiffer competition in England. This means he'll need to be at his best to help Liverpool maintain top spot, especially with Arsenal and Manchester City poised to surge again this coming campaign. Supporters shouldn't worry about the quality Wirtz will bring once he starts playing in Merseyside. And it seems they can also rest assured of the player's determination to excel at every opportunity.