German champs Bayer Leverkusen save unbeaten run to make Europa League final, now face Bochum – the last side to beat them
- The Bundesliga champions played their record 49th match without defeat in all competitions in seeing off Roma
- They have also reached the German Cup final, and are two games away from going through the German season undefeated
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Bayer Leverkusen coach Xabi Alonso says his team deserve all three titles available to them this season after they qualified for the Europa League final by overcoming AS Roma on Thursday.
Leverkusen, the Bundesliga champions who have also reached the May 25 German Cup final, played their 49th match without defeat in all competitions, surpassing Benfica’s long-standing European record set from 1963 to 1965.
In typical Leverkusen fashion this season, they achieved the milestone after a late comeback from two goals down to secure a 2-2 draw at home to Roma, securing their spot in the May 22 final in Dublin by 4-2 on aggregate.
“We’ll play two finals in a week as a result,” Alonso said. “We showed great character today after their second goal. I looked my players in the eye afterwards and saw that they wanted more.
“We still have the chance to win three titles. And my boys deserve all three titles.”
No team has ever gone through a Bundesliga season unbeaten, but Leverkusen are two games away from doing just that.
On Sunday, they travel to struggling Bochum, the site of their last league defeat all the way back in May 2023 – the final match day of last season.
Back then, not even the most optimistic Leverkusen fan could have predicted how brilliant the following 12 months would have been for Alonso’s side.
With just two major trophies in their history before the start of this season, Leverkusen are on course for the remarkable treble.
But despite their incredible season, Leverkusen’s hopes of being the first side to go through a Bundesliga season unbeaten faces a real challenge on Sunday in their penultimate match.
Bochum are strong at home, having inflicted the defeat on Bayern Munich in February that cost Thomas Tuchel his job.
In May 2023, Alonso’s revolution was already in full swing. The Spaniard took over with Leverkusen in relegation danger in October 2022 but stopped the bleeding and set his side on course for European qualification.
On the final match day, Leverkusen came to neighbouring Bochum needing a win or a draw to guarantee a Europa League spot, having lost only once in the league dating back to February.
For Bochum the situation was dire: only a win would lift them out of the relegation mire.
Leverkusen winger Amine Adli saw straight red after just eight minutes and Bochum were 2-0 up by half-time, adding a third in the dying stages to climb to the safety of 14th.
Against Roma on Thursday, Leverkusen had a slice of luck as the Italian side’s defender Gianluca Mancini deflected the ball into his own net in the 82nd minute.
Substitute Josip Stanisic then scored the equaliser just before the final whistle to send Leverkusen into the record books and said it was among the biggest moments of his career.
“Definitely one of them. We knew what was at stake, we really wanted to get to the final and I think you could see that over 90 minutes today,” said Croatia international Stanisic.
“I don’t think we would have cared in the end if we lost and still progressed because we really wanted to get to the final, but it’s even nicer this way.”
For Roma, the chance to make it into a second straight Europa League final after last season’s defeat by Seville on penalties slipped away in the dying minutes of the match.
“When you manage to get it back from 2-0 down and go close to the miracle, knowing nobody has ever beaten them this season, it hurts to see us concede a goal like that. It hurts,” Roma manager Daniele De Rossi told Sky Sports Italia.
