Bayer Leverkusen’s perfect week culminated in the dream day, an afternoon in which Xabi Alonso’s team came back from a score down against Hoffenheim (2-1) in the final minutes of the match and sat in front of the television to witness the defeat (0-2) of Bayern, its pursuer and winner of the last eleven Bundesligas, against Borussia Dortmund, which strengthens its chances of playing in the next Champions League just a week and a half before meeting Atlético in the top continental competition .
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Hradecky, Jonathan Tah, Edmond Faycial Tapsoba (Josip Stanisic, min. 86), Piero Hincapie Reyna (Borja Iglesias, min. 71), Jeremie Frimpong (Nathan Tella, min. 86), Xhaka, Grimaldo, Robert Andrich, Schick, Florian Wirtz and Jonas Hofmann (Amine Adli, min. 57)
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Baumann, Tim Drexler, Florian Grillitsch, Ozan Kabak, David Jurásek, Kaderabek, Kramaric (Prömel, min. 57), Anton Stach, Umut Tohumcu (Dennis Geiger, min. 72), Wouter Weghorst (Marius Bulter, min. 77) and Maximilian Beier (Ihlas Bebou, min. 72)
Goals 0-1 min. 33: Maximilian Beier. 1-1 min. 87: Robert Andrich. 2-1 min. 90: Schick.
Referee Deniz Aytekin
Yellow cards Tim Drexler (min. 18)
“We have created a winning mentality,” decided Xabi Alonso after the deployment of his boys, who conceded a little before the break and became a roller after that break. In the last quarter of an hour they shot on goal eleven times. Borja Iglesias, who still hasn’t made his debut, crashed an attempt into the post. “We were convinced that we would have a chance. It’s happened other times,” Alonso slipped at the end. His footballers handle themselves in agony with the conviction of those who know they are in a state of grace. They deserved the victory and achieved it with the signature of the 29-year-old German neo-international Robert Andrich in the 88th minute and the Czech opportunist Patrik Schick in the 91st minute.
The Bayer, nicknamed Neverkusen Due to his contumacy in failure, he is on his way to his first Bundesliga because, indeed, something has changed. He was able to finish this Saturday just seven points ahead of Bayern and now sees them at thirteen and with seven games to play. If he wins three he will be champion. Nobody deserves it more. They already have more points (73) than Bayern achieved a year ago to win the crown, there are 34 wins and 5 draws in 39 official matches in a campaign in which they remain alive on all fronts: this Wednesday they host Fortuna Düsseldorf , from the silver division, in the semifinals of a Cup in which the other teams in contention are Saarbrücken, from the third category, and Kaiserslautern, in a relegation position in the second. In the Europa League the horizon is a double duel against West Ham United in the quarterfinals.
Left behind are not only Bayern but also Borussia, who defeated the Munich team at the Allianz Arena with an early goal from Adeyemi and a late one from Ryerson, a fair definition of what happened, Dortmund dominated from start to finish. For ten campaigns the yellow team had not won in the imposing Munich Coliseum. He broke the streak against a team in demolition, which is looking for a coach who will not be Xabi Alonso. The Gipuzkoan, whose continuity in Leverkusen was confirmed, was cheered in the stadium of the next champion, in whose stands were nested handkerchiefs and scarves with a legend as simple as it was forceful: “DankeXabi.”
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