Bayer Leverkusen lifted the Bundesliga title for the first time in their 120-year history on Sunday, a 5-0 victory over Werder Bremen breaking Bayern Munich’s 11-year stranglehold on the German top flight.
Xabi Alonso’s Leverkusen knew victory would secure the title
with five games to spare, but there were no signs of nerves in a dominant
performance.
A hat-trick from Florian Wirtz and goals from Victor
Boniface and Granit Xhaka extended their unbeaten run to a stunning 43 games in
all competitions.
Leverkusen’s maiden title, coming after five second-place
finishes in their history, keeps their dream of a remarkable treble alive while
shedding their unwanted ‘Neverkusen’ nickname for good.
With 10 minutes to go, the long-suffering fans began making
their way to the sidelines and a few jumped the gun, storming the pitch with
the match still ongoing.
Leverkusen’s players ushered the fans back and some obliged,
albeit briefly, with the stands swiftly emptying on the 90-minute mark as
tearful fans made their way onto the grass to celebrate with the players.
Leverkusen are now on 79 points — the best tally after 29
games in German league history — and are 16 clear of second-placed Bayern and
third-placed Stuttgart.
The Leverkusen bus arrived at the stadium 90 minutes before
kick-off, wading through a sea of fans clad in black and red on the way to the
30,000-capacity BayArena.
Normally known as Bismarck Street, fans had stuck temporary
signs saying ‘Xabi Alonso Street’ along the main road in honour of the club’s
coach.
Alonso looked ahead to Thursday’s Europa League trip to
London to face West Ham, making seven changes to his starting XI and benching
stars Wirtz, Jeremie Frimpong and Alex Grimaldo, the latter for the first time
in the league this season.
Piero Hincapie, Grimaldo’s replacement, had an early effort
at goal saved but it would be the fit-again Boniface, making his first start
since mid-December, who put the home side in front.
With 22 minutes gone, Jonas Hofmann was felled in the box by
Bremen’s Julian Malatini, with the referee pointing to the spot after VAR urged
him to view the contact again on the monitor.
Boniface stepped up and nervelessly slotted the penalty past
a helpless Michael Zetterer to send the home fans into raptures.
Hofmann was almost the provider again shortly before
half-time, his pass finding Amine Adli who fired against the crossbar.
Bremen started the second-half strongly but their hopes of
spoiling the party were snuffed out on the 60-minute mark, Boniface finding
Xhaka who unleashed a long-range rocket before slapping his badge in front of
the ecstatic home fans.
Wirtz, who came on at half-time for Adli, replicated Xhaka’s
effort eight minutes later from almost the same spot on the pitch.
Wirtz added another with seven minutes remaining before
sealing his hat-trick in the 90th minute as Leverkusen rid themselves of their
nearly men tag in style.
Earlier on Sunday, a 36th-minute goal from Ritsu Doan took
Freiburg to a 1-0 win at Darmstadt, pushing the last-placed hosts closer to
immediate relegation.
Winless since October and with only two victories all year,
the loss leaves Darmstadt dead last, eight points from second-last and 13
points from safety with five games remaining.
AFP
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