For those who watched Sunday's Bundesliga match in Berlin between Eintracht Frankfurt and Freiburg, it must have been a reminder of the infamous scuffle between players and staff of Real Madrid and Barcelona during a 2011 El Clasico. A wild tackle on Cesc Fabregas by Marcelo near the Barca bench soon snowballed into an all-out assault involving prominent names like David Villa, Iker Casillas and Mesut Ozil. Jose Mourinho, Madrid manager back then, poked rival assistant coach Tito Vilanova in the eye with his finger and received a slap in the back of his head in return.
In Germany too the game ended in chaos after Frankfurt captain David Abraham was sent off for knocking over Freiburg coach Christian Streich.
Freiburg was leading 1-0 when the ball went out of play in injury time. Streich let the ball go by as Abraham tried to recover it, and the Frankfurt captain bundled the coach over with his shoulder as he ran past. Upset Freiberg players and staff then chased the defender onto the field.
"He felt provoked, but that shouldn't happen ... he knows that," Frankfurt sporting director Fredi Bobic said of Abraham. "There will be consequences for everyone involved."
Freiburg assistant coach Florian Bruns was shown a yellow card and Vincenzo Grifo, who had already been substituted, was shown red after VAR picked him up targeting Abraham in the melee.
Streich said Abraham apologized to him afterwards and the coach considered the issue to be over.
"Football is a contact sport. That was on the wrong side of it though. It was a heated game, we need to calm down, it's done, and not have silly talk about it now," said Streich, who said he tried to brace himself pre-contact. "At 54 you can be run over by a young buffalo, you can't hold yourself against it anymore."
Freiburg won the game 1-0 thanks to Nils Petersen's 77th-minute goal.
The German football league, in recent times, has been marked with unnecessary controversies. The national second-tier league and other lower-grade matches are marred by continual attacks on referees by players over an unfavourable whistle or booking.
Frankfurt, which defeated Bayern Munich 5-1 the weekend before, was dealt a blow before the break when Gelson Fernandes was sent off with his second yellow card.
The result lifted Freiburg to fourth on 21 points after 11 games, behind Bayern on goal difference.
(With Associated Press inputs)