Bayer Leverkusen: Dominant, brilliant – and now also feared

It was the biggest and most sincere compliment a footballer can give. “If we now agree that it was a penalty, then of course I’ll be annoyed,” said Julian Brandt. Then the Borussia Dortmund international took a break. “But I would find it disastrous to just jump into that scene,” he continued. Because Leverkusen was superior to his team in almost all respects. “And that’s why I think Leverkusen deserved to win more than we did,” said Brandt.

The 27-year-old, who played a total of 165 Bundesliga games for Bayer between 2014 and 2019, took a different line than his current head coach.

Edin Terzic was really raging after the 1-1 draw in the Bundesliga top game because his Dortmund team had been denied a possible penalty after a foul on Karim Adeyemi. “That’s not fair,” he said – but then still spoke of a “fair draw”. Daring assessments.

23:6 shots on goal, 16:1 corners

Because what the Leverkusen team showed on Sunday was – apart from the unfortunate result for them – proof of their strength. Xabi Alonso’s team had 68 percent possession of the ball, and in the end they had a goal shooting ratio of 23:6 and a corner ratio of 16:1. Whether passing rate or passing accuracy – there was hardly a category that wasn’t won by the Werkself. Although their winning streak ended after 14 games, Bayer’s dominance continues.

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Leverkusen is the only German team still undefeated in all competitive games. Just last Thursday there was the fifth win in the fifth game in the Europa League with a 2-0 win against Swedish first division club BK Häcken. It should stay that way when we face second division team SC Paderborn in the DFB Cup on Wednesday (6 p.m./Sky). Bayer wants to keep all title options open for as long as possible – even if it is Xabi Alonso’s credo not to talk about it too specifically.

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“We are not thinking about next May,” explained the Basque. However, he had to admit that the stable performances make it increasingly likely that there could be something to celebrate in Leverkusen. “We have a good spirit, a good squad and quality. And we work hard,” he said.

It doesn’t matter that much if it doesn’t get three points – like recently against BVB. “Our performance was good enough to win. “That’s why we’re not totally satisfied with the result,” explained Alonso. However, this time his team also had to deal with a particularly cautious opponent. The Dortmund team had really isolated themselves. “It wasn’t easy to play against a team that was so deep,” said Alonso. Dortmund “played 6-3-1.” He would not have expected Borussia to be so destructive.

Neither do his players. “When you see that BVB comes to us and just defends and plays long balls for 90 minutes, then we can be proud of ourselves,” said Granit Xhaka. This shows how feared Leverkusen’s qualities are. “I think Dortmund have the right to be at the top. And when they stand so low, it shows how much respect they have for us,” explained the Swiss, who was once again the pace setter in the midfield center on Sunday.

Alonso took over Bayer in 17th place

In fact, the only remotely promising means against Leverkusen seems to be an underdog strategy, which – with all due respect – is more reminiscent of the style of play of FC Augsburg than that of a top team. But anyone who offers Bayer space runs the risk of being paraded. “A few teams have already gone under here,” said Brandt. The Dortmund team were at least able to avoid this: “The Leverkusen team have a sensational positional game. Your processes are in place. It all makes sense and sense. They are difficult to defend.”

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Fourteen months after Alonso took over the team from second-to-bottom in the table, they are functioning like a well-oiled machine. Xhaka, Alejandro Grimaldo, Jonas Hofmann and Victor Boniface, last summer’s additions, are fully integrated. Xhaka has taken the lead. The automatisms take effect.

In addition to the individual quality, there is the coach’s tactical skill: when an opponent closes the center, he pulls the central midfielders like Exeqiuel Palacios and Florian Wirtz outwards. Leverkusen always has chances. It was “just bad luck” that we weren’t able to win on Sunday, said goalscorer Boniface.

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Speaking of Wirtz. The national player, who is the focus of big clubs, will probably stay at Bayer Leverkusen for the time being and not move early. “At the moment everything is geared towards Florian playing in Leverkusen again next season,” said his father Hans-Joachim Wirtz, who represents his son and is leading the contract negotiations, on Sky. Accordingly, a change is only conceivable from 2025. FC Bayern, Real Madrid, Manchester United and other top European clubs are said to be interested in the 20-year-old. His contract with the Bundesliga leaders runs until the summer of 2027. In January 2020, Wirtz moved from 1. FC Köln’s youth team to the factory club.

“This is the right way to move forward,” says Alonso

The question of whether Wirtz will stay or not seems to have been clarified for the time being. But the question of who should stop him and his teammates this season is more open and justified than ever. It could possibly be a problem if important players are missing – which hasn’t been the case so far. But from January 13th to February 11th there is a risk of a bottleneck if five players, including four regulars, actually go to the Africa Cup of Nations. Boniface and Nathan Tella (Nigeria) may also be affected, as may Edmond Tapsoba (Burkina Faso), Amine Adli (Morocco) and Odilon Kossounou (Ivory Coast). This could be the phase in which it will be seen whether Bayer are actually robust enough to become champions for the first time.

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For Simon Rolfes, the team’s architect alongside Alonso, this is not an issue – at least not yet. The sports director, who only extended his contract until 2028 a week ago, is not concerned with problems that he cannot solve anyway. It is much more important to prepare for the fact that there will hardly be any games in the current season in which the opponent will face Leverkusen with an open visor. “We expected Dortmund to be defensive. The fact that they were so defensive was also because we did a lot of things well,” said Rolfes – even if Boniface only equalized ten minutes before the end.

Sunday’s performance must be the blueprint for the coming weeks – apart from exploiting opportunities that can be expanded. Xabi Alonso is convinced of this. Immediately after the game against BVB, when many of his players were still disappointed, he told them: “This is the right way to move on.” Until May.

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