Once again Bayer Leverkusen put up formidable numbers at the weekend. They outgunned their visitors RB Leipzig in almost every possible metric; 26 shots to the visitors’ eight, 18 corners to two and 62% possession. Yet the number that will stick in the mind is a significantly bigger one.
Four hundred and sixty-two. That was the number of days since Die Werkself’s previous Bundesliga defeat – before Saturday, when Leipzig finished the job that Borussia Mönchengladbach could not on the season’s opening night. Like Gladbach, Marco Rose’s team came back from 2-0 down at the champions. In contrast, they surfed the momentum, with Loïs Openda adding a firmly struck winner to his equaliser. Leipzig now have the longest unbeaten streak (13) in the Bundesliga. Leverkusen thus tasted domestic defeat for the first time since losing a dead rubber at Bochum in the final game of 2022-23, ending a remarkable run of 43 without defeat in Bundesliga, Pokal and Super Cup.
Some have suggested it will be a relief to Xabi Alonso, allowing him to focus on the objectives that matter rather than pleasing statistical highpoints – nobody wants to be the 2016 Golden State Warriors, breaking new ground in the regular season and ending up trophyless at the end of it. Leverkusen, with the three pots won this year installed behind glass in the club’s reception for this opening league home game, have become too businesslike, and greedy for more, to get caught up in that.
Yet if Alonso might allow himself to be philosophical in private, he was mightily irritated in public. He called his team “soft without the ball” and talked of his concern that they had let a two-goal lead go in successive Bundesliga matches. “We have to learn from the big mistakes we made,” he said. “We gave the opponents the chance to come back.”
The coach was focused on one particular moment: the goal by former Leverkusen midfielder Kevin Kampl just before half-time that reduced the deficit with Alonso’s team cruising. The most arresting sight after the goal was defender Piero Hincapié, arms wide and palms up, asking where everyone had been while the 5ft 10in Kampl wandered into the six-yard box and helped himself to a free header.
Some might argue that Alonso’s approach, to publicly challenge his players rather than to congratulate them on what went before, is a bold one. Yet the commitment to collective excellence now embedded in the club suggests that his words, and his demeanour, will be absorbed in a positive way. And maybe they really did need it.
Leverkusen had shown signs, in the Super Cup and in the league opener at Gladbach, that their attention to detail is not what it was. They have looked defensively malleable for a while (arguably since they secured last season’s title back in spring). “It is not the first time that the self-confident Leverkusen players have left the door ajar for their inferior opponents,” noted Leipziger Volkszeitung’s Guido Schäfer, offering an even-handed analysis.
“Anyone who can play as well as Bayer and is intoxicated by their own game does not always run into every defensive space, does not always enter into every tough tackle, knowing that they will score the decisive goal or two at some point.” That intensity is something that Alonso will voraciously try to recover. His irritation by Saturday’s defeat was almost matched by his annoyance that with the international break beginning, he will be robbed of the immediate opportunity to drill those mistakes out of the squad.
The difficulty for Leverkusen when that tempo dropped, whether it be early-season rust or a sense that the job was done, was that few do intensity like Leipzig. They seized Kampl’s goal as a lifeline and came out firing in the second half. Openda, both a gamble and a departure from club transfer policy when he arrived last summer in a near-€50m deal, underlined his status as one of the continent’s most underrated strikers with a clinical double to overcome their suddenly passive opponents.
Leipzig underlined their collective strength too. This wasn’t a game the brilliant Xavi Simons had to win for them. The connection between Openda and Benjamin Sesko is strengthening rapidly, and the latter played in the former to smash the equaliser through a prone Matej Kovar in goal.
Union Berlin 1-0 St Pauli, Bayer Leverkusen 2-3 RB Leipzig, Werder Bremen 0-0 Borussia Dortmund, Stuttgart 3-3 Mainz, Holstein Kiel 0-2 Wolfsburg, Eintracht Frankfurt 3-1 Hoffenheim, Bochum 0-2 Mönchengladbach, Bayern Munich 2-0 Freiburg, Heidenheim 1846 4-0 Augsburg
Antonio Nusa teed up Openda for the winner, underlining their excellent transfer window. Rather than last year’s impromptu rebuild when Dominik Szoboszlai and Josko Gvardiol left, the 2024 summer window has been far more calm and controlled. If Dani Olmo went back to Barcelona and Mohamed Simakan left for Saudi Arabia, it was on Leipzig’s terms. It has allowed them to bring in Nusa, another highly promising talent in Arthur Vermeeren, plus Lutsharel Geertruida, a more than capable replacement for Simakan. Leipzig have started well and they will get better.
It was something not entirely unexpected in the corridors of power at Leverkusen. The CEO, Fernando Carro, identified Leipzig and Borussia Dortmund as the natural opposition before the season, with the club’s leaders careful not to talk about recapturing the Bundesliga. Carro and co will admire much about Leipzig’s recent business. In time, they may also be grateful to them for prompting a kickstart of Leverkusen’s own season.
Talking points
• Leipzig’s intensity continued on the touchline. Rose was sent off for two bookable offences in a matter of first-half seconds, and took a seat in the stand – only for the seat’s owner to return from the bar a few minutes later. Leverkusen seats are at a premium these days, after all.
• Before we get to the big boys, let’s recognise that Heidenheim are top after Sunday’s 4-0 thrashing of Augsburg. Their remarkable story under Frank Schmidt continues. After losing their three best players in summer (Jan-Niklas Beste, Eren Dinkci and Tim Kleindienst) they clinched Europa Conference League group stage football this week; both that and their win at the weekend inspired by their new darling, the 18-year-old Paul Wanner, on loan from Bayern and a scorer in three straight games.
• Wanner’s parent club laboured to a 2-0 win over Freiburg on Vincent Kompany’s home Bundesliga debut, but Harry Kane’s first league goal of the season was not the headline. Thomas Müller came on for a record-breaking 710th club appearance and added an ingenious second goal to seal the win. Dortmund took a point in a dull goalless draw at Werder Bremen, which felt like an achievement given Nico Schlotterbeck’s utterly daft second-half red card.
• The aforementioned Kleindienst has had a great start to his new life at Mönchengladbach. He may have touched the ball only 15 times at Bochum on Saturday but two of them were a goal and an assist to set up a 2-0 win. It was also wonderful to see the recently departed Christoph Kramer and newly retired Patrick Herrmann in the crowd enjoying a well-deserved beer.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heidenheim | 2 | 6 | 6 |
| 2 | Bayern Munich | 2 | 3 | 6 |
| 3 | RB Leipzig | 2 | 2 | 6 |
| 4 | Borussia Dortmund | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| 5 | Union Berlin | 2 | 1 | 4 |
| 6 | Borussia M'gladbach | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| 7 | Wolfsburg | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| 8 | Bayer Leverkusen | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| 9 | Eintracht Frankfurt | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| 10 | Freiburg | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| 11 | Hoffenheim | 2 | -1 | 3 |
| 12 | Mainz | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 13 | Werder Bremen | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 14 | Stuttgart | 2 | -2 | 1 |
| 15 | Augsburg | 2 | -4 | 1 |
| 16 | Holstein Kiel | 2 | -3 | 0 |
| 17 | St Pauli | 2 | -3 | 0 |
| 18 | VfL Bochum | 2 | -3 | 0 |
