Paris Pulled the Plug

There are defeats that hurt, and then there’s a 2–7 against Paris Saint-Germain. One of those nights when, as a Bayer fan, you start wishing the referee would just skip stoppage time out of mercy. The scoreline looks brutal—and yes, it really was that bad. A night to forget, but also one that brutally exposes the gap between “on the right path” and “on their level” in European football.

Of course, PSG are a juggernaut. Title holders, stacked with players who were probably born with a football glued to their feet. But that doesn’t explain everything. Because after a promising start, a missed penalty and an equalizer, Bayer 04 didn’t just lose the lead—they lost the plot. Three goals conceded in six minutes: that’s not brilliance from the opponent anymore, that’s collective collapse. Moments like that simply can’t happen at this level, even a man down.

Coach Kasper Hjulmand talks about “development” and “building a team” – and he’s right. But development only works if you’re honest about where the cracks are. Defensively, Leverkusen were miles off the pace. Everything that looked solid in Mainz—compactness, balance, discipline—disappeared against Paris. Add a few frayed nerves, and you get a scoreline that looks like a typo but isn’t.

Andrich’s red card was unlucky, but it also summed up the night: late, rash, unnecessary. PSG punished every mistake with surgical precision. Every turnover was an open invitation to dance on our misery. Aleix Garcia’s two goals, including a stunner from distance, were a small silver lining, but they don’t change the overall truth: we weren’t competitive.

The fans, though, were magnificent. Loud, loyal, defiant. You could feel that they understood what this team is trying to become. But maybe, just maybe, we fans also need to start demanding more than the comfort of “long-term process” speeches. This squad has quality, no doubt. What it lacks—still—is maturity in big games. Being brave isn’t enough on the Champions League stage; you also have to be street-smart.

The good news? The season doesn’t stop here. Freiburg in the Bundesliga and Paderborn in the cup are coming up fast. Those matches are the perfect chance to prove that lessons have been learned, not just noted in the post-match press conference. But that requires finding the pride that seemed to vanish somewhere around the 40th minute against Paris.

A 2–7 loss can be filed away, sure. But it shouldn’t be shrugged off. Because if you really want to belong among Europe’s elite, you have to endure nights like this—and respond to them the right way. Painful as it is, maybe this was the kind of reality check every “project” needs once in a while.

So, let’s take the punch, fix the fuse, and move on. After all, we’re Bayer 04: sometimes tragic, always passionate, never boring.