This weekend’s Top-Spiel did exactly what the showpiece should – to an extent. Saturday’s early-evening Bundesliga match is positioned as the crown jewel of the weekend but even if a gripping draw between Leipzig and Bayern Munich ostensibly ticked all the boxes of entertainment and intrigue, the stomach still continued to rumble afterwards. This was a match and an occasion that, rather than delivering a statement, authored far more questions than answers.
With all manner of exciting talent on the field at Red Bull Arena this was played under the shadow of Max Eberl, abruptly fired by Leipzig on Friday with the club statement citing a “lack of commitment” which implied to many failing to sufficiently distance himself from speculation linking him with Bayern (whose interest in Eberl, to be clear, far predated his arrival at Leipzig). Oliver Mintzlaff, the club’s managing director, even went as far as to call his appointment of Eberl “a misjudgment” during his Saturday night appearance on ZDF’s Das Aktuelle Sportstudio.
