French champions against Bundesliga leaders: The new Champions League season for VfL Wolfsburg begins on Tuesday with a game at OSC Lille. Both clubs are doing very differently in terms of sport and economy.
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Striker Wout Weghorst (r) travels to Lille with Wolfsburg as the undefeated Bundesliga leaders. Photo: Tom Weller / dpa (Image: dpa)
(Photo: Tom Weller / dpa)
Lille – No other Bundesliga coach knows the Champions League better than Mark van Bommel.
As a player he reached the final with Bayern Munich (0: 2 against Inter Milan) and FC Barcelona (2: 1 against FC Arsenal). And when the new season begins on Tuesday with the game of his VfL Wolfsburg against French champions OSC Lille, the 44-year-old Dutchman will be in the premier class of European football for the third time in the third year of his young head coach career be.
«The biggest competition»
For a club, the Champions League is “the biggest competition you can play in,” said van Bommel in an interview with the German press agency. For VfL it is also the reward for continuous sporting development over the past three years. Because between the Champions League 2016 against Real Madrid and the game at Stade Pierre Mauroy (Tuesday, 9 p.m. / DAZN) there were also two near relegations in 2017 and 2018.
Lille is not Liverpool or Real. “There are certainly groups that are more difficult,” said van Bommel. “But in a group with Lille, Seville, Salzburg and us, anyone can beat anyone. That is what makes it so dangerous. This group is very balanced. ”
Beyond the sporting importance, a game between Lille and Wolfsburg also provides plenty of arguments for the eternal discussion about the influence of external financiers in professional football: what competitive advantage this can bring (see Wolfsburg) or what risks are sometimes associated with it (see Lille).
Unbeaten table leader
VfL goes into this game as the undefeated league leaders in the Bundesliga. The parent company Volkswagen compensates for the losses during the corona pandemic. And the additional income from the Champions League helped that the Lower Saxony did not have to sell a well-known player even after three successful years. Instead, around 50 million euros were invested in up-and-coming players like Luca Waldschmidt (Benfica Lisbon) or Lukas Nmecha (Manchester City) in the summer. “We haven’t lost any top performers for three years,” said managing director Jörg Schmadtke in the Sport1 “double pass”. The Champions League is a challenge. “But our squad is also well positioned across the board”.
None of that applies to Lille. For years, hardly any other club knew how to use the unleashed transfer market as much as the northern French. The striker Victor Osimhen, who had failed in Wolfsburg, was brought from Charleroi in 2019 for a good 20 million euros and sold to SSC Napoli just one year later for 70 million.
Lean league start for Lille
In the middle of the Corona crisis, however, the club owner was no longer able to repay his loan from an American fund company that now also owns AC Milan. The entrepreneur Gerard Lopez sold his shares in the Lillois to an investment fund from Luxembourg, which in turn let several players move after winning the championship in order to reduce the debt burden of over 150 million euros. Lopez himself returned to Girondins Bordeaux shortly afterwards, while his former team without the master coach Christoph Galtier (OGC Nice) and the key players Maik Maignan (AC Milan) and Boubakary Soumaré (Leicester City) only won one of the first five league games.
The French were able to keep their best attackers and former Bayern professional Renato Sanches. Compared to the other conditions at OSC Lille, Mark van Bommel knows very well what he has in his new club. «I knew that the Bundesliga was well structured. But Wolfsburg is outstanding there, ”he said.
The probable lineups:
OSC
Little: Grbic – Celik, José Fonte, Botman, Reinildo – Ikoné, André, Xeka, Yazici – David – Yilmaz
VfL Wolfsburg: Casteels – Baku, Lacroix, Brooks, Roussillon – Guilavogui, Arnold – Steffen, Philipp, L. Nmecha – Weghorst
referee: Danny Makkelie (Netherlands)
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210913-99-198818 / 2
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