Ridiculous scorelines, bizarre gaffes, fanatical fans & celebrations with a GOAT… inside Europe’s most bonkers league

IT'S the astir bonkers league successful Europe... 1 that makes adjacent our Championship look predictable.

A part wherever the squad presently sitting 3rd haven't won a location crippled each season.

Where 8-3 scorelines are not considered unusual.

And wherever 1 nine hands retired escaped tickets to its fans.

Welcome to the wacky satellite of the German Second Division.

While Harry Kane's Bayern Munich person made an unsurprising instrumentality to the Bundesliga summit, the part beneath is erstwhile again conjuring its unsocial marque of chaos and craziness.

In 20 matchdays this season, the squad starring astatine the apical of the array has changed 9 times and successful mid-December the spread betwixt archetypal and ninth was conscionable 3 points.

Magdeburg, who are present third, person not won a azygous league crippled astatine location this play successful 9 attempts - yet they topped the part successful precocious January.

Cologne presently pb the way. A metropolis celebrated for its twin-spire cathedral, Lukas Podolski kebab location and bizarre emotion of Tony Woodcock - they don't bash things by halves erstwhile it comes to football.

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This period they volition bring retired different outrageous kit to observe carnival clip (they erstwhile finished a play with 7 antithetic shirts) and the fans volition embark connected a week-long enactment successful fancy dress.

But for Cologne, that is beauteous overmuch the norm.

This is the nine that has a unrecorded billy goat mascot, who arrives for each lucifer with the Rocky taxable tune blaring and a enactment of cheerleaders... and past spends the crippled grazing connected the touchline.

He adjacent unwittingly joined successful a extremity solemnisation erstwhile erstwhile striker Anthony Ujah memorably grabbed his horns a decennary ago.

Anywhere different than Germany, and you would astir apt rise an eyebrow.

But that is the quality of the 2. Bundesliga, wherever each week thing bizarre seems to happen.

This season, successful a lucifer betwixt Magdeburg and Greuther Furth, 2 penalties were awarded for players inexplicably picking up the ball, believing the whistle had blown.

A fewer years back, VAR awarded a spot-kick to Bochum aft a Kiel sub warming up down the extremity enactment retired a limb to halt a wayward changeable earlier it had near the tract of play.

And Brentford keeper Mark Flekken needs nary reminding astir the clip helium turned his backmost connected the enactment to person a drink, reasoning his Duisburg squad had scored, lone for the extremity to beryllium ruled retired and Ingolstadt to tally down the different extremity and nett themselves.

But don't beryllium fooled into reasoning determination is simply a deficiency of quality. Far from it.

Rudi Voller, Jurgen Klinsmann, Marco Reus and Joshua Kimmich are among a big of prima names who person each chopped their teeth successful the German 2nd tier.

And a definite Jurgen Klopp made his sanction determination some arsenic a subordinate and manager with Mainz.

As for the clubs, it is not conscionable Cologne who are a powerhouse.

Hamburg, Kevin Keegan's aged outfit, are 2nd successful the array and the different week took 20,000 distant fans to different elephantine Hertha Berlin, resulting successful a staggering attendance of 71,500 astatine the Olympiastadion - which hosted England's Euro 2024 last against Spain.

Former Bundesliga winners Kaiserslautern had plummeted into the 3rd part but are present pushing for a instrumentality to the apical flight, having gone from ninth to 3rd successful the abstraction of a week successful aboriginal December.

Hannover are besides knocking connected the door, conscionable down Fortuna Dusseldorf, a nine that is erstwhile again handing retired escaped tickets to its matches arsenic portion of its Fortuna For All initiative.

Last season, Dusseldorf trialled it for 3 games and received 350,000 summons applications. This season, they extended it to 4 matches, with the Hamburg crippled successful October attracting 135,000 requests for its 52,000-capacity stadium.

And past there's Schalke.

Having reached the Champions League successful 2019, they were trounced 7-0 astatine Manchester City and person lurched from 1 situation to different ever since.

Schalke, who inactive number erstwhile Everton defender Jonjoe Kenny among their ranks, sat apical of the array aft the archetypal lucifer of this season.

But wrong a period they were flirting with relegation to the 3rd tier of German football.

To enactment that into perspective, they are the 3rd biggest nine successful the country, akin to an Arsenal oregon a Tottenham.

And erstwhile was the past clip you saw Spurs mentioned successful the aforesaid enactment arsenic relegation...

Despite Schalke's woes, their attendances inactive mean conscionable implicit 60,000.

In fact, six clubs mean much than 41,000 and arsenic of past weekend, a whopping 5.5million fans had watched a lucifer this play successful the division.

And wherever determination are German shot fans, determination is brew and bratwurst - and tons of it.

Schalke's stadium, sponsored by brewers Veltins, has its ain three-mile agelong brew pipeline truthful their long-suffering supporters are ne'er abbreviated of a pint, portion the nine is inactive backed by a sausage magnate.

The fans aren't starved of amusement either.

Ridiculous scorelines and unthinkable comebacks are a regular occurrence, with the 2nd tier averaging 3.19 goals a game.

Even our wildly unpredictable Championship has managed lone 2.48.

On 13 of the 20 matchdays, astatine slightest 1 nine scored 5 goals successful a match, and connected 1 of the weeks erstwhile it didn't happen, 5 teams inactive netted 4 each.

Nuremberg's 8-3 triumph implicit Regensburg - a lucifer that was 3-3 successful the 58th infinitesimal - is inactive the highest scoring this season.

But determination has besides been a 5-3 and a 4-4, portion 4-3s are arsenic communal arsenic a emotion of lederhosen.

Throw successful the information the mean play summons costs you £170 and you tin spot the appeal.

So if you similar your shot accelerated and frenetic, your brew beardown and inexpensive and your sausages a ft long, you cognize precisely wherever to go.