Efficient after an early setback: Bayreuth wins in Ansbach
In the opening match of the Regionalliga Bayern on Thursday, SpVgg Bayreuth wrestled a largely playful SpVgg Ansbach to the ground with efficiency and energetic tackling.
An offensive outing with resounding success: Alexander Seidel (archive photo) became SpVgg Bayreuth's match winner in his Regionalliga debut. IMAGO/Fotostand
The first Regionalliga match of the 2025/26 season took place on Thursday at the Xaver-Bertsch-Sportpark. SpVgg Ansbach, which finished tenth last season, hosted last year's fifth-place finisher SpVgg Bayreuth. Some coaches believe the visitors from Upper Franconia have the potential to win the Bavarian Regionalliga championship , but the club from the Wagnerstadt district is plagued by financial problems .
Ansbach started the match with Puscher as their only new signing. Bayreuth fielded six new players: Dehler, Quirin, Fischer, Klein, Winklbauer, and Seidel.
Shortly after a rather harmless shot from Bayreuth's Stefandl, Ansbach took the lead with their first attack. Angermeier found a small gap in the visitors' center in the 7th minute and played a low pass to Seefried, who slotted in front of Dehler to make it 1-0. Shortly afterward, Schmidt appeared unmarked in front of Dehler after a fatal error in Bayreuth's build-up play, but came second.
Bayreuth struggled for a few minutes before Andermatt and Klein put a relatively dangerous attack on Ansbach's goal after just under 25 minutes. Heim did better in the 29th minute, equalizing with a well-placed shot after a counterattack.
After a few minutes without any major highlights, Kroiß found Manz in the back of the Altstadt penalty area, but Fischer blocked this dangerous shot. The halftime break came on time shortly after.
Kroiß misses top-classHalf-chances on both sides initially characterized the second half. In the 60th minute, Ansbach's Kroiß found himself unmarked after a much too short back pass from Quirin, but the ball flicked centimeters wide of the far post. After this chance, the balance swung in favor of the Middle Franconians, who missed further great opportunities through Manz and Oberseider.
Bayreuth survived this phase unscathed and became a bit more active. In the 82nd minute, Seidel got his foot on a free kick from Andermatt and fired the ball into the net from close range to make it 2-1 for the visitors. A bit flattering, but also effective.
The visitors were very stable at the end, Ansbach's spirit had ebbed, and there was no way to counter the strong Wagnerstädter in the last minutes, so the three points went to Bayreuth.
The two teams will meet again on August 5th at Bayreuth's Hans-Walter-Wild Stadium for the second round of the Bavarian State Cup. The league return match is scheduled for November 14th.
