2024-08-22 08:24:15
Manuel Neuer’s career was shaped above all by the 2014 World Cup and his unique performance against Algeria. However, his big breakthrough came six years earlier.
Fans of FC Schalke 04 fondly remember March 5, 2008. At that time, the “Knappen” had nothing to do with the 2nd Bundesliga. Schalke was in the middle of the race for the international places, having only narrowly lost to FC Bayern a few days earlier. “Royal Blue” now traveled to Porto with their heads held high. The second leg of the Champions League round of 16 was about to begin. Schalke had won the first leg 1-0 thanks to an early goal by Kevin Kuranyi (4th minute).
At the Estádio do Dragão, the “Dragon Stadium” in Porto, coach Mirko Slomka’s team wanted to use their good starting position to advance.
But the Portuguese applied pressure from the start, creating chance after chance. It seemed as if it was only a matter of time before they took the lead. Only one person was opposed to it: Manuel Neuer. The then 21-year-old, called “the blond boy” by many due to his boyish appearance, made one brilliant save after another.
A shot from striker Lisandro López from seven metres? No problem! A header from the completely unmarked Tarik Sektioui from close range? Nothing could be easier! Neuer drove Porto to despair in the first half. In the second half he then made a save that would remain unforgettable. Schalke’s defence speculated on offside from a free kick from Ricardo Quaresma. But the linesman’s flag stayed down. Lucho González, completely unchallenged, passed the ball across to Tarik Sektioui, who only had to head the ball in from three metres.
But the “blond boy” came flying in like a handball goalkeeper, who was supposed to block the ball somehow. Sektioui couldn’t believe it. The winger, stunned, ended the celebration he had already started.
It was one of a total of eleven saves that Neuer was to make that evening. He was only unable to prevent the goal once. In the 86th minute, Lisandro López scored for the hosts.
Shortly afterwards, the game went into extra time, and Neuer once again wasted a great chance. Ricardo Quaresma had a free shot after a bad pass, but the one-man wall from Gelsenkirchen made him hesitate – and they parried the shot again. The decision was therefore made in a penalty shootout.
Neuer saved two of Porto’s three attempts. Schalke’s four shooters all scored, and the Royal Blues’ entry into the quarter-finals was complete. A result that the Portuguese would not understand even days later.
“The German goalkeeper made almost impossible saves,” marveled “O Jogo”, a Portuguese sports newspaper. “Mais Futebol” even spoke of “Neuer’s miracle” and, based on Porto’s coat of arms, called him the “demon of the dragon”.
Neuer himself remained relatively modest. Years later, he spoke of a “great day” he had in Porto. “Everything really worked out,” he added. The quarter-finals were the end of the game against Pep Guardiola’s FC Barcelona. But that was not to harm Manuel Neuer’s career. The “blond boy” had become a world-famous goalkeeper whose performance that night in Porto would still be talked about 16 years later.