Friday night was no first day fun for VfB Stuttgart as they got first-hand proof of what the rest of the Bundesliga feared: that Bayern Munich are perhaps mightier than ever. The curtain-raiser, though, didn’t actually set the tone for the the weekend. German football has long insisted there is more to their elite league than a title race, and now they have a story that shows the world that surprise and wonder does indeed live here too.
Bayer Leverkusen arrived into their opening fixture of the campaign thinking their season might contain greater certainty than the last one, a more tranquil voyage after being blown off course by almost €300m of player sales and the ill-fated appointment of Erik ten Hag. Enter SV Elversberg, Bundesliga first-timers and representatives of – a “miracle village” as Bild put it – Spiesen-Elversberg, a town with a population of just over 13,000, situated 15km north-east of Saarbrücken, 30 minutes’ drive from the French border.
