Despite being outnumbered for more than half a game, Bayer Leverkusen still won the DFB Cup against 1. FC Kaiserslautern, completing the double. The hero of Berlin was Granit Xhaka.
Xhaka scored the goal of the day on Saturday (May 25, 2024) in the Olympic Stadium, which was sold out with 74,322 fans, in the 16th minute. Leverkusen defender Odilon Kossounou was shown the yellow-red card in the 44th minute. Shortly after the restart, there was a three-minute break due to the continued use of pyrotechnics, first from the Lautern fan curve and later also from the Leverkusen fan curve.
“The most important thing was the team’s belief. They were prepared to fight when they were outnumbered. That was just great,” said coach Xabi Alonso in an interview with Sportschau about the double and Leverkusen’s second cup win after 1993.
“We are of course disappointed because we did not manage to equalize,” said outgoing FCK coach Friedhelm Funkel at the Sportschau microphone, “but I am also proud because the team gave it their all.”
To the live ticker: Kaiserslautern against Leverkusen Arrow right Final Arrow right
Five changes from Leverkusen’s Xabi Alonso
Compared to the Europa League final loss against Atalanta Bergamo (0:3), Alonso made some personnel and tactical changes. He used a real centre-forward in Patrik Schick and a sweeper in defensive midfield, Robert Andrich. Jonas Hofmann was allowed to play on the right wing, Kossounou moved into the back three, and Lukas Hradecky was in goal for the first time this season in a cup match, instead of Matej Kovar.
At FCK, Funkel made three changes compared to the last competitive game: Ben Zolinski and Jan Elvedi moved into the defense line. Jean Zimmer came in for the wing. Somewhat surprisingly, striker Ragnar Ache (16 second division goals), who has been repeatedly injured recently, had to sit on the bench.
Brave start from Kaiserslautern
But even without Ache, the “Red Devils” started extremely bravely. After just two minutes, Kossounou received a yellow card because he could only stop the onrushing Kenny Redondo by fouling him. The Bayer defense had great difficulty clearing Tymoteusz Puchacz’s free kick, and shortly afterwards Hradecky had to use all his skills to stop Daniel Hanslik’s long-range shot.
It was only after a quarter of an hour that Leverkusen slowly got into the show. Perhaps the Bergamo debacle had taken away some of the confidence with which Bayer had stormed through the Bundesliga. Led by Florian Wirtz, the Werkself then became more dangerous. First, Schick narrowly missed a pass from Wirtz, then FCK keeper Julian Krahl parried Wirtz’s shot from a tight angle.
Dream goal from Xhaka for Leverkusen
The champions’ pressure increased, Lautern could no longer free themselves sufficiently – and then Xhaka let it rip: from 23 meters he curled the ball into the left corner, Krahl had no chance. As a result, Leverkusen completely took over the dominance in midfield. Alex Grimaldo narrowly missed making it 2-0 with a lob over Krahl in the 26th minute because Boris Tomiak scraped the ball off the line.
It was only after a good half hour that Lautern made another offensive move with Redondo’s long-range shot before Leverkusen got themselves into trouble.
Justified sending off for Bayer’s Kossounou
Kossounou was once again quite robust in a tackle in the 37th minute. Funkel was already making gestures on the sidelines demanding a yellow card. Bastian Dankert was quite right to let it go, but five minutes later the defender from the Ivory Coast gave him no choice: Kossounou kept his studs on Tomiak’s ankle for far too long in the fight for the ball – this bad tackle could have resulted in a straight red card instead of a yellow-red card.
“After that, a completely different Leverkusen was on the pitch,” said winning goal scorer Xhaka to Sportschau: “Tactically excellent, mentality outstanding and apart from one shot on goal for Kaiserslautern in the second half, we didn’t allow anything.” In any case, Leverkusen had to continue with ten men and almost conceded the equalizer before half-time through a low shot from Tobias Raschl that went just centimeters past the post.
Alonso and Funkel react differently
At the restart, both coaches took action to deal with the personnel imbalance. Alonso replaced Schick and Hofmann with Amin Adli and Josip Stanisic, changed the defence to a back four – Funkel increased the pressure up front by bringing on Ache for Hanslik.
The changes had an impact on both sides. Leverkusen had a huge chance to make it 2-0 in the 55th minute with a header from Stanisic after Grimaldo’s corner. Shortly afterwards, on the other side, Ache narrowly missed the Bayer goal with a 22-meter shot. In the 63rd minute, Hradecky was only able to fish Ache’s next cracker out of the left corner with a super save.
Calm instead of risk at Leverkusen – Alonso slows down Wirtz
A remarkable scene in the 65th minute showed how much pressure Leverkusen felt during this phase. When Wirtz wanted to quickly throw in and take advantage of a situation where the FCK defense was outnumbered, Alonso ran into his path, hugged him affectionately and urged him to keep calm and order rather than go too vehemently for the second goal.
The opportunity arose like this: after Adli had won the ball well, Wirtz sent Frimpong through with a quarter of an hour to go. He had already rounded Krahl, but then completely missed the pass to Xhaka, who was running alongside him. Kaiserslautern didn’t produce much after that, and certainly didn’t threaten the goal. Bayer controlled the ball and the opponent even with ten men, and the defense around Jonathan Tah and Edmond Tapsoba sealed everything off at the back together with Andrich.
In the end, Leverkusen was the sixth club in German football and the first in its own history to celebrate the double.
