The football week: second half of the season, birthday, corona worries
Created: 01/03/2022 05:01 AM
FC Bayern Munich around Robert Lewandowski opened the second half of the season.
© Tobias Hase / dpa
The Bundesliga starts the second half of the season with the classic Munich versus Mönchengladbach.
Two days earlier, the former Bayern President Uli Hoeneß is celebrating a milestone birthday.
Berlin - Nine points ahead of Borussia Dortmund, even 24 over the next opponent Borussia Mönchengladbach: Before the start of the second half of the season in the Bundesliga, FC Bayern Munich confidently leads the table.
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But the winter champion does not start the second half of the series carefree.
Corona and Omikron are also omnipresent at the start of the new football week.
Again ghost games in the Bundesliga:
Because of the rapid spread of the omicron variant of the coronavirus, things are getting a bit more bleak again in almost all stadiums of the first division.
"Major national events are no longer allowed to take place with an audience, this applies in particular to football matches," said Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) most recently after consulting the Prime Ministers of the federal states.
So again ghost games without fans - only in Berlin are up to 3000 spectators allowed in the stadiums of Hertha BSC and Union after a country decision.
Bayern against Gladbach:
The Bundesliga opens the second half of the season with a football classic.
But halfway through the season, the autumn champions FC Bayern and the table-14 separate.
Borussia Mönchengladbach Welten - namely 24 points.
"We dominate in the Bundesliga," said Bayern Honorary President Uli Hoeneß.
The lead over first rival Borussia Dortmund is nine points.
"Actually, the goal difference is even ten points," said Hoeneß.
The duel Bayern against Gladbach draws its special charm from the 0: 5 Munich in the DFB Cup.
The five-goal wreck at Borussia Park at the end of October still hurts the Bayern stars very much - and should spur the team around record scorer Robert Lewandowski when they see each other again.
70th birthday Uli Hoeneß:
On Wednesday, a great German football player will celebrate a milestone birthday: Uli Hoeneß will be 70. Born in Ulm, he has shaped FC Bayern Munich like no other for almost five decades as a player, manager, board member and most recently president and made it a top club in the world .
As the “attack department”, it was feared by the competition.
In 2019, the 1974 world champion withdrew from the front row.
"I have to admit that it wasn't that easy at the beginning," said Hoeneß in an interview with the German Press Agency.
The honorary president is still a member of the supervisory board.
His word continues to carry weight in the club.
A big birthday party that he would have liked to host is not possible due to Corona.
Hoeneß wants to celebrate with the family in a small group at home on the Tegernsee: "A nice meal, that's it."
Africa Cup:
The Africa Cup is due to start in Cameroon next Sunday.
The continental tournament was postponed last year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
And this year too, the preparation of corona cases will be impaired.
A planned test match between defending champions Algeria and Gambia in Doha has been canceled.
It is still unclear how many players are not available to the Gambia team due to quarantine measures in the first game against Mauritania on January 12th.
Despite demands for a cancellation or a relocation to a country outside the continent, the organizers are sticking to the event.
Numerous Bundesliga clubs are providing professionals for the tournament from January 9th to February 6th.
dpa