The Bundesliga had waited a long time for this. On the rare occasion a contender to genuinely challenge Bayern Munich emerges, we have come to wince at the moment of impact. If it looks too good to be true, it normally has been in a run of 11 successive titles. Yet this time Bayer Leverkusen were not only ready to compete. They were ready to dominate on their terms, to dictate, to highlight their excellence in bold. This time, it looks like it is for real.
This took us back nearly 13 years, to 26 February 2011. Another Saturday night Topspiel and another title contender’s statement of late winter intent on the big stage. On the night that Jürgen Klopp’s young Borussia Dortmund went to Allianz Arena and swept aside the hosts with verve – effectively ending Louis van Gaal’s reign of success on the spot – they announced themselves to Planet Football. They were not just a curio, not a few lines of diverting football digest, but serious players.
This weekend, it was Leverkusen’s coming-out party. Beyond dedicated Bundesliga watchers, glances of recognition had been shot towards Xabi Alonso, particularly in the wake of the unfolding coda to Klopp’s years of triumph at Liverpool. This, however, showed the world exactly what Leverkusen under Alonso are about; the full brochure in glossy colour, PowerPoint presentation with champagne brunch, accompanying light show and firework finale on the forecourt. Leverkusen are not just pacemakers in this Bundesliga title race. They are the leaders, they are still unbeaten and they are quite simply the best team in Germany.
Such has been the quality of the football, rather than just the results, in Leverkusen’s season of plenty so far that the visit of Bayern had been anticipated for months. When the moment arrived Leverkusen were ready, and the champions were not. This was a glorious procession, a dismantling, a demolition from start to finish. At the end of carnival week in the region (in case you needed a reminder, the irrepressible Florian Wirtz’s parents were in the stands wearing green wigs), this was carnival football from Leverkusen.
Of course it had been carnival all week, and there can be no overestimating how important Tuesday night’s thrilling 3-2 win over Stuttgart in the DFB-Pokal quarter-final, via Jonathan Tah’s last-minute winner, had been – beating one of the best teams around at the moment, recovering from behind twice, treading a clear path to silverware (with two second-tier teams and possibly a third-tier one also in the last four) and managing to be in the moment rather than focusing on the ogre looming on Saturday’s horizon. Nothing more clearly describes the switch in poise under Alonso. From Neverkusen to Neverlosen, perhaps.
You could be forgiven for not having foreseen this. It was not cynical to imagine that Leverkusen simply couldn’t maintain their early season pace, hit by the loss of a clutch of players to the Africa Cup of Nations and, following that, the more long-term absence of their centre-forward Victor Boniface. Instead these setbacks have allowed Alonso to explicitly underline his own wisdom and versatility, as emphasised in this exuberant win over Bayern. Nathan Tella, fed minutes sparingly by Alonso before Christmas but given greater rein in 2024, has been monstering his opportunities since.
He was preferred to Jeremie Frimpong, one of the mainstays of the season, and justified the faith, lively throughout and creating the second goal for Álex Grimaldo with a smart pass.
Then there was Frimpong, finding himself on the bench and coming on as a finisher, running a weary Bayern even more ragged in the closing stages before sealing the game with its final touch, sprinting clear of a trio of defenders and making it 3-0 from way out wide with Manuel Neuer stranded acres behind him after desperately advancing for a corner. Alonso had chosen to go into the game without an orthodox centre-forward, trusting he had attacking threats all over the pitch. As with most tactical calls he makes, it worked to perfection.
WOW JEREMIE FRIMPONG THAT IS INCREDIBLE! 🤯🤩 pic.twitter.com/RB5hJJ8g4l
— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) February 10, 2024
Poor Thomas Tuchel paled in comparison. He switched to an unfamiliar back three, presumably to try to match the home side’s shape, and it was largely a shambles. Sacha Boey, a surprisingly sensible January signing brought in to secure the long term at right-back, was wedged into a makeshift left wing- back role for his first Bundesliga start and Bayern were generally uncertain and reactive. Maybe having the opposition overthink things and tie themselves in knots is another acknowledgment of Alonso’s growing aura. “We were,” admitted Robert Andrich, who supplied the opener for Josip Stanisic (scoring against his parent club), “a bit surprised by Bayern’s formation.”
This wasn’t just about tactics, though, but about big-match appetite. “We’re missing, if I can quote Oliver Kahn, some balls,” a visibly furious Thomas Müller told Sky. Bayern were not only disjointed but lacking in intensity. They were pedestrians. Noussair Mazraoui had their one counted effort on target, but it was so inoffensive as to barely amount to catching practice for Lukas Hradecky. Harry Kane was shackled, taking a mere 18 touches.
Tuchel, never one to mince his words since his arrival, lamented that “we made incredibly bad decisions, especially after winning the ball”. This was the sort of result and performance that would have cost previous Bayern coaches their jobs, though there is probably not the stability upstairs to provide an immediate threat to him. Bild entered into the spirit of things by reporting on Sunday that José Mourinho is learning German. Bayern lack direction on and off the field.
As for Leverkusen’s five-point advantage; Bayern were five points behind Dortmund at exactly this point five years ago, a year in which the perennial champions recovered to win the title by two points on the final day. The numbers may be the same at this point but the flow of momentum is very different. It all leaves Leverkusen “on the right track to end the tyranny”, as Hradecky put it in an interview with Süddeutsche Zeitung’s Philipp Selldorf last week. And, points-wise, it hasn’t even taken Bayern falling from excellence. It has just been that, as they showed the world on Saturday, Leverkusen are extraordinary.
Hoffenheim 1-1 Cologne, Stuttgart 3-1 Mainz, Leverkusen 3-0 Bayern, Augsburg 2-2 RB Leipzig, Eintracht Frankfurt 1-1 VfL Bochum, Borussia Mönchengladbach 0-0 Darmstadt, Union Berlin 1-0 Wolfsburg, Werder Bremen 1-2 Heidenheim, Dortmund 3-0 Freiburg.
Talking points
• After weeks of disruption the anti-investor protests went up a notch, as Bundesliga fans in the top two divisions continue to make their opposition to public equity investment clear. Friday night’s Nordduell between Hamburg and Hannover came close to being abandoned – with one particularly bracing banner of Hannover MD Martin Kind in crosshairs – and Saturday have rise to several lengthy stoppages, including Danilho Doekhi scoring Union’s winner against Wolfsburg in the 25th minute of first-half stoppage time after a pause to remove tennis balls from the field. Players and coaches are conflicted between sympathy for the fans and acknowledging this situation cannot continue. “Protest should hurt,” Union’s suspended captain, Christopher Trimmel, told Sky during the stoppage, “otherwise you won’t hear it. From a player’s perspective, this is not ideal for rhythm.”
• Finally a really good news story from Dortmund’s 3-0 win over Freiburg, with Mateu Morey making a long-awaited comeback from continued knee problems with a late substitute cameo, his first appearance since May 2021.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bayer Leverkusen | 21 | 41 | 55 |
| 2 | Bayern Munich | 21 | 37 | 50 |
| 3 | Stuttgart | 21 | 22 | 43 |
| 4 | Borussia Dortmund | 21 | 17 | 40 |
| 5 | RB Leipzig | 21 | 18 | 37 |
| 6 | Eintracht Frankfurt | 21 | 6 | 32 |
| 7 | Freiburg | 21 | -11 | 28 |
| 8 | Hoffenheim | 21 | -2 | 27 |
| 9 | Heidenheim | 21 | -6 | 27 |
| 10 | Werder Bremen | 21 | -4 | 26 |
| 11 | Augsburg | 21 | -8 | 23 |
| 12 | Wolfsburg | 21 | -8 | 23 |
| 13 | VfL Bochum | 21 | -16 | 22 |
| 14 | Borussia M'gladbach | 20 | -5 | 21 |
| 15 | Union Berlin | 21 | -15 | 21 |
| 16 | Cologne | 21 | -20 | 16 |
| 17 | Mainz | 21 | -19 | 12 |
| 18 | Darmstadt | 20 | -27 | 11 |
