Xabi Alonso’s players ended an 11-year reign at Bayern Munich on Sunday.
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They will have been entitled to the outcome they dreamed of. Players and supporters of Bayer Leverkusen were able to exult on Sunday April 14 in their BayArena stadium and celebrate the first German championship title in the history of their team. Stuck between Cologne and Düsseldorf, the club mathematically assured its crowning glory five days before the end of the Bundesliga season by logically crushing Werder Bremen (5-0).
Faced with an opponent playing in the second half of the table and without a victory for six matches, nothing came to thwart this ideal afternoon. Xabi Alonso’s players confirmed their domination in the 25th minute with a penalty obtained by Jonas Hofmann and converted by Victor Boniface. Determined to celebrate this historic day until the end, they added to the score with two strikes from outside the area from Granit Xhaka (60th) and Florian Wirtz (68th), the German football prodigy.
The lawn invaded in the middle of a match
The same Wirtz did it again by bringing the score to 4-0 at the conclusion of a counter. It was enough for the BayArena crowd, as euphoric as they were impatient, to invade the pitch with around ten minutes still to play. Fearing that the match would be interrupted, or even lost on the green carpet, the Leverkusen players had to call them back into the stands. It was in a cloud of red smoke that the match resumed and ended before added time. The reason, a fifth goal signed Florian Wirtz, author of a hat-trick.
For the first time since 2012, the German champion will not be Bayern Munich. The traditional celebrations on Marienplatz will not take place. Leverkusen will have to wait a few more weeks to parade with the trophy, the championship ending on May 18. Two other objectives are still accessible: the Europa League and the German Cup. Launched into a series of 43 matches without defeat, Xabi Alonso’s players also have the opportunity to mark the history of European football, by completing a season remaining undefeated in all competitions.
