LEVERKUSEN, Germany (AP) — It’s not “Neverkusen” anymore.
Coached by Xabi Alonso, Bayer Leverkusen won the Bundesliga title for the first time on Sunday to end Bayern Munich’s 11-year reign as champions.
In the end, it wasn’t even close – Leverkusen lead second-placed Bayern by 16 points after stretching their German record unbeaten run to 43 games in all competitions this season.
Florian Wirtz scored a hat-trick as Leverkusen thrashed Werder Bremen 5-0 and the game ended in a pitch invasion on Sunday to secure the club’s first German league title with five games remaining.
“It’s indescribable… I don’t think it’s possible, or I personally can’t even realize it yet,” Wirtz told broadcaster DAZN.
“I need a bit more time in the dressing room to really understand what we have achieved. But yeah, so far it’s just been nice to party out there with the fans and also a bit of a party in the dressing room.”
Fans had already invaded the pitch when Leverkusen scored their fourth goal seven minutes from time, and the final minutes were played out in thick red smoke from the supporters’ pyrotechnics as Leverkusen’s players on the bench clapped along with songs, danced and hugged.
The fifth goal in the 90th brought more fans to the pitch – hundreds this time – and the referee called off the game amid confusion and jubilation. Thousands of supporters packed the pitch, waving flags, torches and cardboard replicas of the Bundesliga trophy.
Leverkusen has finally lost its reputation as a perennial runner-up after five second-place finishes in the league and one in the Champions League.
Alonso, who took over when Leverkusen were in the relegation zone in October 2022, has considered ending Bayern’s dominance.
“Maybe it’s healthy for the Bundesliga, also for German football, for another team to win,” said Alonso, who won three Bundesliga titles with Bayern as a player from 2015-17.
“It is a great joy and we must enjoy it. We need a little more time to realize what we have achieved. But it’s a super moment and yes, we’ll see what happens after that,” Alonso said, referring to the other trophies his team could win this season. “But now is the time to celebrate.”
Victor Boniface – starting a Bundesliga game for the first time since December due to injury – calmed Leverkusen’s nerves with the first goal from the penalty spot before Granit Xhaka curled in an audacious long-range strike to make it 2-0 with half an hour to go.
Bremen pulled away after that, with substitute Wirtz scoring a goal very similar to Xhaka’s, then another on the counter in the 83rd and a third to wrap up the game, his first career hat-trick.
Leverkusen are aiming for a historic treble of trophies. Alonso’s side will play second division Kaiserslautern in the German Cup final in Berlin on May 25 and have a 2-0 lead over West Ham after the Europa League quarter-final first leg.
The title puts the spotlight firmly on an industrial town of just under 170,000 that is overshadowed by larger, more famous neighbors.
“Not in Cologne and Dusseldorf, no, we’re home here,” is the third line of the club song played just before kick-off. Football is what makes Leverkusen stand out.
The club started as a workers’ outfit for pharmaceutical giant Bayer 120 years ago and is a rare exception in Germany, where most clubs are member-controlled under the so-called 50+1 rule.
Twelfth-placed Bremen had difficulties even before the start of the match as a club accused midfielder Naby Keita of leaving the team after being disappointed not to be in the starting line-up. Leverkusen goalkeeper Lukas Hradecki dealt with the few chances created by Bremen.
In the early game, Ritsu Doan’s first-half strike was enough for Freiburg to win 1-0 at last-place Darmstadt, who came close to automatic relegation.
Darmstadt, on 14 points, were 12 points off the relegation play-off spot with five games to play. No team in the Bundesliga has overcome such a deficit at this stage of the season to survive.
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