Brundesliga returns to action, but with no fans
Erling Haaland scored the Bundesliga’s first goal in more than two months and then celebrated.
Alone.
The 19-year-old’s Borussia Dortmund teammates stayed away, mindful of the strict hygiene measures amid the coronavirus pandemic, as Germany’s soccer season resumed in unprecedented conditions on Saturday.
Dortmund beat Schalke 4-0 in the first Ruhr derby to be played in an empty stadium. Calls and shouts from coaching staff and players, and the thud of the sanitized ball being kicked, reverberated around the mainly deserted stands.
Players had been warned to keep their emotions in check, and to desist from spitting, handshakes and hugging with the games keenly watched by the rest of the soccer world hoping to restart their own leagues.
Team staff, and players who didn’t start, wore masks. Substitutes took their positions in the stands, rather than beside the field, while balls and seats were disinfected.
Haaland celebrated his 10th goal in nine Bundesliga games with a restrained dance as his teammates stayed back.
“It’s hard,” midfielder Julian Brandt said. “But that’s the way it is now. We try to stick to the rules.”
Brandt set up Raphael Guerreiro before the break and Thorgan Hazard after it. Hazard celebrated alone in front of the Westfalenstadion’s south terrace, where normally the club’s “Yellow Wall” of almost 25,000 fervent fans would be standing.
“It felt strange, also for the players. You could see that with the celebrations,” Dortmund team co-ordinator Sebastian Kehl said.
Haaland set up Guerreiro to seal the result as Dortmund cut the gap on leader Bayern Munich to a point. Bayern is due to play at Union Berlin on Sunday.
Schalke became the first team to make five substitutions in a Bundesliga game in a new temporary measure allowed in the league, but they couldn’t change the outcome. Dortmund’s players celebrated in front of the empty south terrace afterward.