Leverkusen four steps from the greatest season in European club history: here's how and why
Xabi Alonso's cosmopolitan squad, low on star names and high on endurance, remain on course for an unprecedented unbeaten season, and a treble
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Bayer Leverkusen are just four games away from arguably the greatest season in European club football history, one in which they could go without defeat in any competition and complete an historic treble.
They won the Bundesliga title for the first time in their history on 14 April, ending Bayern Munich’s 11-year title monopoly.
On Thursday they secured a last-gasp 2-2 draw against Roma in the second leg of the Europa League semi-final to seal a 4-2 aggregate victory. That earns them a place in the Europa League final in Dublin on 22 May against Atalanta.
Following that they face Kaiserslautern in the DFB-Pokal (German cup) final in Berlin on 25 May.
And before either of the cup finals, they face two final games in the domestic season. The four fixtures standing between them and history are below, and after that are five reasons why this has already been an astonishing campaign for Xabi Alonso’s team.
It is worth remembering that Alonso, 42 (above) - who as a player won the Champions League and FA Cup with Liverpool, La Liga and the Champions League with Real Madrid, three Bundesliga titles with Bayern Munich, and the World Cup and two Euros with Spain - is in his first managerial job.
Leverkusen’s four steps to immortality
Sunday 12 May Bochum (a) Bundesliga
Saturday 18 May Augsburg (h) Bundesliga
Wednesday 22 May Atalanta (Dublin) Europa League final
Saturday 25 May Kaiserslautern (Berlin) German cup final
Leverkusen are already a record-breaking team
Since opening the 2023-24 season with an 8-0 away win at FC Teutonia Ottensen in the German Cup on 12 August, Leverkusen have played 49 matches in all competitions, winning 40 and drawing nine.
In the league they’ve won 26 and drawn six. In the German cup they’ve won five from five. In the Europa League they’ve won nine and drawn three.
Reaching 49 games unbeaten this season means they have surpassed Benfica’s record of 48 consecutive games unbeaten in all competitions (set between late 1963 and early 1965) for any top-flight club in Europe since 1955, when European club competitions began.
To provide more context on the scale of Leverkusen’s potential achievement, there have been literally hundreds of clubs globally who have recorded an unbeaten league season in football history.
But in Europe there has never been a club who have gone unbeaten in their domestic league, domestic cup and a European competition in the same campaign.
Four of the most famous ‘invincible’ European teams in recent decades all lost at least one match.
Celtic in 2016-17 won a domestic treble in Scotland without losing a domestic fixture but lost five games in the Champions League.
Juventus in 2011-12 went unbeaten in Serie A as they took Italy’s top-flight title under Antonio Conte but lost the Coppa Italia final to Napoli.
Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal invincibles won the Premier League in 2003-04 without losing a league game but lost in the semi-finals of both domestic cups and in four Champions League matches before bowing out in the quarter-finals.
Milan won the 1991-92 Serie A title under Fabio Capello without losing a league game but lost in the Coppa Italia semi-finals to Juventus.
Leverkusen’s wonders assembled on the cheap
Leverkusen’s squad at the start of this season, or to be more precise at the close of last summer’s transfer window, cost less to assemble (all transfer fees combined) than the majority of the 20 clubs in the Premier League.
The CIES football observatory in Switzlerland compiled a list of the top 100 teams in global football by cost of purchase, and Leverkusen’s spending of €275m to assemble their squad was less than the sums spent by Nottingham Forest, Wolves and Bournemouth among others.
Four clubs at the top of the list had spent €1 billion or more: Manchester United, Chelsea, Manchester City and PSG. Leverkusen were 27th in the overall list, and behind Bayern Munich, Leipzig and Dortmund in their own league.
Leverkusen: the least German squad in the Bundeslia
Leverkusen have fewer German players than any other Bundesliga club in their first-team squad, both in absolute terms (six Germans) and relative terms (just 21.4%). At the other extreme, Heidenheim’s squad is 88.5% German, with 23 of 26 players from Germany.
Leverkusen’s squad comprises 28 players from 16 different nations, broken down as follows: from Germany 6, Czech Republic 3, Belgium 2, Morocco 2, Netherlands 2, Nigeria 2 (including Lambeth-born Nathan Tella), Spain 2, Argentina 1, Brazil 1, Burkina Faso 1, Colombia 1, Croatia 1, Ecuador 1, Finland 1, Ivory Coast 1, Switzerland 1.
Late, late Leverkusen
When Josep Stanisic scored in the seventh minute of added time to secure a 2-2 draw with Roma on Thursday, it was the 17th goal Leverkusen had scored after the 90th minute in matches across all competitions this season. The majority of those goals either changed potential defeats to draws, or draws to wins.
Leverkusen glory: entirely predictable
The performance of Alonso’s side has shocked or at least surprised many people this season. But I highly recommend the video below, which was made seven months ago by Jon Mackenzie of Tifo Football, the video arm of The Athletic.
He doesn’t actually say Leverkusen will definitely win the Bundesliga title and the Europa League, but he makes a pretty compelling case that they might. He called his video: “The most interesting team in the world right now.”