Fears bio-secure football would produce a semi-contactless sport are unfounded, according to the statistics from the Bundesliga’s re-opening weekend.
And while the environment and social-distancing protocols around the nine fixtures were unnervingly eerie, the in-game numbers back up what the naked eye should have noticed.
There was no lack of intensity to lockdown football despite the sterility and the emptiness of the venues. The previous full round of Bundesliga fixtures had taken place in early March and the figures in comparison with last weekend’s games are, unsurprisingly, similar.
And any suggestion players might be even a little reluctant to engage in close-quarter combat was proven to be ill-founded. In fact, there were more fouls