With a 5-0 victory over Werder Bremen on Sunday, Bayer Leverkusen won the Bundesliga championship for the first time in their 120-year existence, ending Bayern Munich’s 11-year monopoly on the German top division.
With five games remaining, Leverkusen led by Xabi Alonso knew a win would guarantee the title, and they displayed a commanding performance without any indication of jitters. Victor Boniface, Granit Xhaka, and Florian Wirtz all scored goals to extend their unbeaten streak to an incredible 43 games in all competitions.
After five second-place finishes in their history, Leverkusen’s inaugural victory keeps their ambition of an incredible treble alive and permanently removes the “Neverkusen” moniker off their team.
Ten minutes remained, and the irate supporters started migrating to the sidelines. A few even stormed the pitch while the game was still in progress.
After ninety minutes, the stands quickly began to empty as distraught fans filed onto the turf to rejoice with the players. Leverkusen’s players gestured for the fans to move back, and some of them did, if only momentarily. With 29 games played, Leverkusen has the greatest point total in German league history (79), 16 ahead of second-place Bayern and third-place Stuttgart.
Xhaka, who regrettably lost out on the Premier League title despite leading for a large portion of the previous campaign, joined from Arsenal in the offseason. Ninety minutes before kickoff, the Leverkusen bus pulled up to the 30,000-seat BayArena, navigating through a sea of black-and-red-clad spectators.
In appreciation of the club’s coach, supporters temporarily painted “Xabi Alonso Street” signs along the major thoroughfare, which is normally known as Bismarck Street. In preparation for Thursday’s Europa League trip to London to take on West Ham, Alonso made seven changes to his starting lineup, benching players like Alex Grimaldo—who is playing in the league for the first time this season—and stars Wirtz. Grimaldo’s replacement, Piero Hincapie, saw his first attempt at goal saved, but the home team’s goal was scored by the fit-again Boniface, making his first start since mid-December.