Championship celebration instead of Vizekusen: Bayer converts match point

The curse is averted – and “Vizekusen” is finally history: the high-flyers from Bayer Leverkusen crowned their unique, fabulous season with the first German championship in the club’s history. The invincibles of coach Xabi Alonso converted the first championship match point in a 5-0 win against Werder Bremen on matchday 29 and gave the factory club the redemption it longed for after decades of unsuccessful attempts, bankruptcies, tragedies and five runner-up championships.

Starting eleven returnees Victor Boniface (25′, penalty kick), Granit Xhaka (60′) and substitute Florian Wirtz with a hat-trick (68′, 83′, 90′) shot Bayer into the lead with five games still to play seventh football heaven. As soon as the goal made it 4-0, the first fans stormed the pitch, but were immediately sent back behind the boards by their own players.

With their 43rd competitive game in a row without defeat, Leverkusen not only equaled Juventus Turin’s European record from 2011 to 2012, the Werkself broke the dominance of record champions Bayern Munich after eleven championships. For the first time since Borussia Dortmund in 2012, another German club secured the trophy.

On the way to the stadium, the team bus had to fight its way through a huge crowd of people. The colors red and black also dominated in bars and kiosks, flags and red smoke could be seen everywhere, and fans were able to stock up on championship fan merchandise before kick-off. The street sign for Bismarckstrasse was pasted over in front of the arena – on Sunday the path was simply called “Xabi-Alonso-Allee”. Club legends like Reiner Calmund and Rudi Völler were in the stands.

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Kaiserslautern celebrates a cup coup, but is worried about staying in the league

In 120 years of club history, Bayer had only won two titles, but this season it could be a triple. Leverkusen goes into the DFB Cup final against second division team 1. FC Kaiserslautern (May 25th) as heavy favorites, and Alonso’s team also has the best chance of reaching the next round before the second leg of the Europa League at West Ham (first leg 2-0).