The curse is averted – and “Vizekusen” is finally history: The high-flyers from Bayer Leverkusen crowned their unique, fabulous season with the first German championship in the club’s history. Coach Xabi Alonso’s invincibles scored their first championship match point in a 5-0 (1-0) win against Werder Bremen on matchday 29, giving the factory club the longed-for title after decades of failed attempts, bankruptcies, tragedies and five runner-up championships Salvation. Starting eleven returnees Victor Boniface (25th, penalty kick according to video evidence), Granit Xhaka (60th) and substitute Florian Wirtz with a hat-trick (68th/83rd/90th) shot Bayer into the seventh football league with five games left. Heaven.
As soon as the goal made it 4-0, the first fans stormed the pitch, but were immediately sent back behind the boards by their own players. With their 43rd competitive game in a row without defeat, Leverkusen not only equaled Juventus Turin’s European record from 2011 to 2012, the Werkself broke the dominance of record champions Bayern Munich after eleven championships. For the first time since Borussia Dortmund in 2012, another club secured the trophy.
On the way to the stadium, the team bus had to fight its way through a huge crowd of people. The colors red and black also dominated in bars and kiosks, flags and red smoke could be seen everywhere, and fans were able to stock up on championship fan merchandise before kick-off. The street sign for Bismarckstrasse was pasted over in front of the arena – on Sunday the path was simply called “Xabi-Alonso-Allee”. Club legends like Reiner Calmund and Rudi Völler were in the stands. And they saw a Bayer starting eleven that was significantly mixed up compared to the quarter-final first leg of the Europa League against West Ham United (2-0).
Alonso did without national player Wirtz, Alejandro Grimaldo, Jeremie Frimpong, Patrik Schick and Exequiel Palacios, and made a total of seven changes. Before the second leg in London on Thursday, they initially saved their energy. At the beginning, Leverkusen seemed a bit nervous. A shot from Piero Hincapie (8th) caused danger, but otherwise the Werkself made one or two sloppy passes against committed Bremen players.
Only when Jonas Hofmann was fouled and the referee awarded a penalty based on video evidence did Bayer gain momentum. Boniface, who started again after a long injury break, converted safely. The day before, players and coaches at Bayer had kept their fingers crossed for Bayern and VfB Stuttgart to prevent a sofa championship. Alonso even stated in advance that he would also be ready for a possible beer shower. First, Jonas Hofmann (35th) and Amine Adli missed the second goal with a shot against the crossbar (38th). Wirtz came on in the second half and, after a bit of a run-up time, fired his first warning shot (58′). Shortly afterwards, Xhaka shot the ball into the goal – and ignited the next stage of the big title party.
“Only SVB will become German champions,” sang the fans, and the final phase, in which Wirtz scored a dream goal from distance, turned into an exhibition game. Shortly before the end, Wirtz scored the next trick. In 120 years of club history, Bayer had only won two titles, but this season it could be a triple. Leverkusen is the heavy favorite going into the DFB Cup final against second division team 1. FC Kaiserslautern (May 25th), and Alonso’s team also has the best chance of reaching the next round before the second leg of the Europa League at West Ham (first leg 2-0).