Elversberg and ‘miracle village’ prove that Bundesliga fairytales still exist | Andy Brassell

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.

The miracle got big enough for all to see it on the Bundesliga’s inaugural Saturday afternoon. Seventy minutes into their top-flight debut and the locals gathered in the Ursapharm Arena – currently under a renovation programme to bring it up to a modest 15,000 capacity, with journalists covering the game from a temporary steel gantry on top of scaffolding and accordingly given a safety briefing beforehand – were pinching themselves. Vincent Wagner’s team led 3-0, courtesy of two goals in the space of 60 seconds in the opening 10 minutes, and then a third 25 seconds after half-time.

New Leverkusen coach Carles Martínez, who looked increasingly exasperated on the touchline as the game went on, threw a host of forwards on to salvage the game, and Patrick Schick and Christian Kofané both scored to reduce the arrears, but it wasn’t enough. A town with no train station and no town hall was now home to a team not only with a first-day Bundesliga win (and no team from Saarland had won a top-flight game since 1993 when FC Saarbrücken beat – you guessed it – Leverkusen), but a victory over the 2024 champions, no less. Even arriving in the same division was akin to a “moon landing”, Wagner had said before the game, continuing to say staying up would be their “mission to Mars”. August results may be notoriously fickle and this may seem like years ago by November, but the win was no fluke.

And make no mistake, Leverkusen were shook from minute one. Elversberg pressed and rattled them, with the visitors’ new captain Edmund Tapsoba looking more the Bundesliga debutant, prone as Lukas Petkov opened the scoring and then turning over the ball almost from kick-off, as Cole Campbell swept into the area to bludgeon in a quickfire second.

The Bulgarian midfielder Petkov had led from the front in the promotion campaign, scoring 13 and creating another six to pick up the slack after top scorer Younes Ebnoutalib left for Eintracht Frankfurt in the winter break. True to form, Petkov also created David Mokwa’s goal at the start of the second half, which turned out to be the difference with a delicious delivery from the right. Yet Campbell is really indicative of the step up. Bought from Borussia Dortmund for €6m in the summer, the 20-year-old from Houston has been rated for a while without truly making a dent in the top tier, either at BVB or on loan at Hoffenheim. He started here – as much of his team did – like a man on a mission, and having laid out a record fee, Elversberg need this to work too.

This spend needs to be put in perspective, of course. When Strasbourg full-back Guéla Doué (elder brother of Desiré) completes his move to the BayArena on Monday, it will be the fourth time this summer that Die Werkself have spent in excess of €20m on a player. Leverkusen, and their coach, had no excuses. After an encouraging pre-season, they were beset by many of the old problems that undercut their Champions League hopes last season. Mark Flekken, their refreshingly blunt goalkeeper, could have been talking in March or May when he told the media: “I can’t even offer an explanation right now.”

On the other side, it was all joy. Flekken’s opposite number Nicolas Kristof, whose brilliant save from Jonas Hofmann in stoppage time shut down Leverkusen’s last hope of taking something from the game, was one of two players in the lineup who has been at the club since they were in the regional fourth tier, winning promotion to the 3.Liga in 2022, at the end of his debut season at the club. It is already a fairytale. If they can build on their start as they build that main stand, it would be a story for the Bundesliga ages.

Talking points

Bayern’s opening night brutality had been, as so often in the past, aided and abetted by their visitors Stuttgart, who tend to play in their normal front-foot style against the champions and are accordingly ripped to shreds even in games (like this one) in which they have good spells. Michael Olise was on the scoresheet but Harry Kane didn’t even need to score, while Ismaël Saibari offered enterprise and two assists from the bench. Vincent Kompany’s team are frightening.

Still, Dortmund had taken hope from their second half in last week’s Super Cup and were very attractive in a one-sided first half against Hamburg, a departure from previous Niko Kovac teams. But although they cruised to a 2-0 win there was a huge blow, with new boy Giannis Konstantelias rupturing his ACL on his full debut, minutes after scoring the second. BVB now have to consider free agent replacements, with both Jadon Sancho and Reiss Nelson among the names circulating.

Saïd El Mala, who nearly ended up at BVB, instead wore the FC Köln No 10 shirt for the first time and helped to inspire a comeback win against Hoffenheim, scoring a first equaliser before new signing Thijs Dallinga struck two memorable goals in a 3-2 victory.

Elversberg’s aforementioned former star Ebnoutalib had an explosive start to the campaign, hitting a hat-trick at Union Berlin. It was an afternoon of vindication for the Moroccan striker, who scored on his Frankfurt debut against Dortmund in January and was then injured shortly after. “It’s good for my mind,” Ebnoutalib said after the game, even though an injury-time Tim Skarke equaliser snared Union a point after they had trailed 3-1 (and debutant Eintracht goalkeeper Noah Atubolu had needed to perform excellently to keep them at bay that long).

Schalke’s return to the top flight started brightly at Augsburg, with Finn Dahmen keeping them at bay in the early stages before Michael Gregoritsch punctured his former club’s hopes with the opener, and it was virtually one-way traffic from there, ending with 10 men and a 3-0 loss. Still, they could be Werder Bremen, given a 4-1 Sunday kicking at Freiburg the day after their star man Jens Stage was confirmed as out injured until the new year.