Bundesliga
Alonso hungry for success after championship: “We want more”
Football: Leverkusen’s coach Xabi Alonso is doused with beer by his players at the press conference after the game. Leverkusen wins the German championship. photo
© Rolf Vennenbernd/dpa
Xabi Alonso is celebrating the greatest success of his young coaching career with Bayer Leverkusen. The Basque already has his next goals in mind – but he doesn’t act as a party brake.
At the moment of the greatest triumph in Bayer Leverkusen’s Bundesliga history, Meistermacher thought Xabi Alonso is already thinking about the next title chances. “It’s great to be German champions,” said the 42-year-old to the cheering fans in the stands at the BayArena. “But we want more. We also want the cup and the Europa League.”
Thousands of supporters had stayed on the pitch long after the final whistle of the 5-0 (1-0) win against Werder Bremen, waiting for the professionals and then celebrating their heroes.
National player and hat-trick scorer Florian Wirtz and striker Patrik Schick thanked the fans for their support via microphone. Goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky sang the “Humba” and attacker Victor Boniface shouted in the excitement of victory: “We still have two finals to give you!”
The DFB Cup final and Europa League game are still to come
Leverkusen has already secured the final of the DFB Cup against 1. FC Kaiserslautern on May 25th in Berlin. The quarter-final second leg of the Europa League takes place this Thursday at West Ham United. After winning 2-0 in the first leg, Bayer is favorite there too.
“Today and tomorrow we have to celebrate. But from Tuesday we have the Europa League, the cup and also the Bundesliga,” said Alonso. In the semifinals his team would face AC Milan or AS Roma. Alonso wants the perfect season without defeat. Bayer 04 have played 43 competitive games so far this season, and Alonso’s team hasn’t lost in any of them.
“What we have achieved to date is incredible. Nobody can take that away from us now,” said midfield strategist and leader Granit Xhaka. “We worked to enjoy this moment.” Xhaka added: “There are moments that you have to enjoy. Today is one of those moments.”
“We are the champions”
The 31-year-old and his teammates hugged each other to “We are the Champions.” The families of the football professionals also celebrated hard in the BayArena. Huge glasses of beer and slices of pizza were passed around. The players, their wives and children took pictures for the family album. “We made history, it’s unbelievable,” said Xhaka.
Werner Wenning also went into raptures. The former Bayer CEO is chairman of the shareholders’ committee and is therefore essentially head of football at Bayer 04. “Now a dream has come true,” said the 77-year-old.
Looking at the beginning of this millennium, in which Bayer 04 had acquired a reputation as runners-up, he said: “I was already there in Unterhaching, also in Glasgow or at some cup finals in Berlin, where things didn’t work out quite so well has.” Wenning added: “For Bayer 04, this is the biggest day in our club’s history. We have to let that sink in for now.”