One hundred and twenty years since Bayer Leverkusen waited for their first German championship title. So many years, too, that he waited to respond to the mockery and get rid of the bad luck that accompanied him for a long time, contributing to his nickname “Bayer Neverkusen”. Winner of Werder Bremen (5-0), Sunday April 14, the club even had the luxury of offering itself a historic coronation in front of its audience, at the BayArena.
A sign of the excitement, ten minutes from the end of the match, the players had to ask the fans to return to the stands, the latter starting to invade the pitch after the 4e but you Bavarian (83e), the second of the day for midfielder Florian Wirtz. The meeting continued in the cloud of smoke bombs… Until the nugget of German football scored its hat-trick (90e). This time, it was impossible for the stadium to hold back its joy. Within seconds, the lawn was submerged in a red tide.
It must be said that this season is a relief for the supporters, who have long suffered from the traumas experienced at the turn of the 2000s. During the 1999-2000 Bundesliga exercise, Leverkusen saw the title slip away on the last day, won by Bayern Munich… thanks to a better goal difference. Two years later, Bayer seemed in contention to achieve the treble. In ten days, he had lost the final of the German Cup, then that of the Champions League, after being overtaken in the championship by Borussia Dortmund.
A significant advance
This time, he had taken precautions and the coronation had become an open secret, such was the gap with his direct pursuers. Before this 29e day, six games remaining, Leverkusen was 16 points ahead of second-placed Bayern Munich and third-placed Stuttgart. The real question was therefore when he was going to deliver the blow to them.
The North Rhine-Westphalia team, founded in 1904 by the chemist Bayer, had two options to make its dream come true this weekend. The first: that its rivals lose their respective duels on Saturday, at home – against relegated Cologne for the Bavarians (2-0), against Frankfurt for the Baden-Württembergois (3-0). But Xabi Alonso had no too many illusions. “ I think it would be a very big surprise. », Estimated – rightly – with a doubtful pout on his face, the Leverkusen coach, during the pre-match press conference.
So go for the second option, winning against Werder Bremen, the soft underbelly team of the Bundesliga (12e before kick-off). A solution which was favored by the Spaniard anyway: “To be honest, I would prefer that we win the title on the field with our victory. » And even if the Basque refused to plan too much on a possible celebration, he said to himself ” ready “ to receive the traditional shower of beer that crowned players traditionally pour on their coach at the final whistle. He will not have been disappointed.
Forty-three matches without defeat
This title crowns an already impressive season. Leverkusen have not lost a match in all competitions since mid-August, i.e. 43 matches (38 wins, 5 draws). A record for a German team.
It can even become the first club in the country to complete a championship season without defeat. Only four teams have achieved such a feat since 1945 in the European “Big Five”: Perugia (in 1978-1979, which nevertheless finished 2nd), AC Milan (1991-1992), Juventus Turin (2011-2012) and Arsène Wenger’s “Invincibles” at Arsenal (2003-2004).
Bayer’s coronation also marks the end of the Bayern Munich era in the Bundesliga, forced to cede a throne that it had occupied continuously since 2013. Last year, the Rekordmeister was put in difficulty by Borussia Dortmund, saving his crown on the wire. Nothing comparable, however: only 2 small points separated the Bavarians and the BVB at the dawn of the last day.
Leverkusen can now dream of the treble, which is still in contention in the German Cup, the final of which will be played on May 25 against Kaiserslautern, and in the Europa League, with the quarter-final return against West Ham on April 18. A nice revenge for the club, until now subscribed to places of honor. And no matter if he falls in the coming weeks, he will never again be nicknamed “Bayer Neverkusen”.