The outgoing managing director Rudi Völler and coach Gerardo Seoane hugged each other tightly, the players celebrated exuberantly with their fans in the guest corner. Mainly thanks to striker Patrik Schick, Bayer Leverkusen made it into the Champions League on the penultimate matchday – for the first time since 2019, Leverkusen is playing in the premier class again.
Leverkusen won the Bundesliga 4-2 (1-2) at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim on Saturday and secured third place in the table. Czech striker Schick scored his number 23 and 24 goals of the season in the 34th and 76th minute in front of 20,033 spectators in Sinsheim. “First of all, congratulations to the team for this great development,” Seoane said at the press conference. Almost at the end of his successful first season at Bayer, the 43-year-old Swiss felt “great gratitude and appreciation” and explicitly mentioned the employees at the club: “We are extremely happy for these people. And last but not least, I’m also happy for Rudi that we gave him to give a dignified farewell.”
Leverkusen thus avoided the feared endgame for entry into the premier class for the season finale against SC Freiburg, which was also defeated by 1. FC Union Berlin. Hoffenheim and head coach Sebastian Hoeneß gambled away their last theoretical chances of entering the Europa League with the eighth winless game in a row, which was the declared goal of the season. The TSG pros stood in front of their supporters with their heads hanging.
Leverkusen sets club record
Georginio Rutter (22nd) and Christoph Baumgartner (36th) gave the hosts the lead twice. Moussa Diaby made it 2-2 (73′), Lucas Alario scored to make it 4-2 (90′ + 1′). With the 78th goal of the season, Leverkusen set a club record: the previous record was 77 goals in the 2001/2002 season.
In the early stages, Leverkusen concentrated on countering the somewhat hectic attempts to attack by their opponents – up until the scene when Piero Hincapie let Christoph Baumgartner swipe the ball away from him. The Austrian international then served Rutter and gave the Frenchman his eighth goal of the season. The 20-year-old was the only one in the TSG squad to be in all the competitive games this round and whirled again, but had to be substituted at half-time due to shoulder pain.
The equalizer came almost out of nowhere: Schick hit a cross from Diaby with a wonderful direct acceptance. Hoffenheim responded immediately with Baumgartner’s header when goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky’s Bayer defense was not aware of a cross from Pavel Kaderabek. Then Leverkusen turned up so much that Seoane later spoke of a “sensational second half”. The strong Diaby with his 13th goal this season and again Schick made the TSG defense look really bad.
Somehow typical for Hoffenheim in this round that was so disappointing at the end: Andrej Kramaric, whom Hoeneß had made captain at short notice, shot just before the end after Jacob Bruun Larsen hit the post and missed the 3: 3. Alario put the final point with the 4:2.