Watching Bayern Munich lift the Bundesliga Meisterschale has been very familiar for years.
With 11 consecutive titles, the Bavarians have dominated Germany’s most sensible department for more than a decade.
But this year turned out to be very different. Borussia Dortmund, who failed to knock them down with almost the last shot last season, came off the canvas to reach the Champions League final with Edin Terzic.
Bayern can still finish third at Stuttgart, but Bayer Leverkusen are well above the chasing group.
A corporate-owned club with plastic supporters that has achieved good fortune over the course of 20 years – that’s the nasty stereotype that opposition enthusiasts have shaken off their backs.
But on the pitch, there is still no praise for Xabi Alonso’s performance this season, having been appointed manager in October 2022 with the club at the time from last position in the Bundesliga with five problems in the first 8 games.
Shortly before Alonso’s arrival, Leverkusen had been humiliated in the DFB Cup by third-tier SV Elversberg.
For the club’s sporting director, Simon Rolfes, it was a wonderful show of confidence in a boy who in the past had only worked as coach of Real Sociedad’s B team in Spain.
But Alonso’s meteoric rise at one point led him to the favourite to upgrade Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool. He took a once-worldly organization of gamers and put together a title-winning machine.
A two-time Champions League winner with Liverpool and Real Madrid, his transition to training is understandably intriguing, but taking a struggling team and turning it into Invincibles would be among the biggest stories in fashionable football.
Leverkusen set a new record among European clubs of 49 consecutive matches without defeat in all competitions by earning a late draw against Roma to reach the Europa League final. They extended it to 50 games with a 5-0 win in Bochum.
So how did Alonso do it? The good luck of recruitment played a big role, as Victor Boniface, Granit Xhaka, Jonas Hofmann, and Alex Grimaldo temporarily acclimatized.
“To prepare for this year, we need to think about those strategic players in strategic positions, who can make us progress and where we can be better,” Alonso said in the autumn.
Jamie Carragher’s investigation into Alonso’s taste of control earlier this season highlighted the intelligence deployed between the warring parties in traps, creating space in the wide regions for players such as Grimaldo and Jeremie Frimpong.
The Bundesliga teams got no response, and therein lies the innate gift of maintaining that intensity until the final whistle.
Despite leading 3-2 on aggregate against Roma on Thursday, Leverkusen were the team that put the pressure on at the end, buoyed by the unbeaten record they were desperate to preserve.
Josip Stanisic’s goal in the 7th minute of stoppage time was Leverkusen’s 12th goal of the season after the 90th minute. All seven were decisive.
After another comeback, Alonso said: “It’s difficult to face this kind of scenario over and over again. I’m still a little bit speechless because we were able to come back, show this character and not lose the game. “
“We showed wonderful character and the boys continued to know that we were on the right track, even after the 2-0 (for Roma).
“You may have some doubts, you may lose control, you try to change the way you play a little bit. But we’re still doing the right things. “
After beating Bayern to be crowned Bundesliga champions for the first time in their history, Alonso’s side are now heavy favourites to achieve a historic treble without defeat.
Augsburg will host the BayArena next weekend, before Gian Piero Gasperini’s Atalanta provide what appears to be the toughest challenge left in the Europa League final in Dublin four days later.
Kaiserslautern, 14th in the 2nd Bundesliga and still out of the relegation play-offs, will face Leverkusen in the DFB-Pokal Cup on May 25 in Berlin.
Atalanta will face Juventus in the Coppa Italia final next week, and their defeat to Liverpool at the previous festival underlines their credentials.
But after breaking a record set by an iconic Benfica team for 59 years, Alonso and Leverkusen are close to immortality.
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