LAST-MINUTE LEVERKUSEN RIDE AGAIN
While it was no great surprise that Regionalliga Nord outfit FC Teutonia 05 Ottensen shipped eight goals without reply in getting knocked out in the first round of the German equivalent of the FA Cup by Bayer Leverkusen last August, nobody who was involved in the match had any idea of the significance of the hammering they had just watched unfold. Ostensibly a fourth-tier side who had only earned the right to play in the DFB-Pokal once before, Teutonia were almost certainly happy to take their licks in return for a big payday but could yet go down in football history as the extremely difficult answer to the pub quiz question: “Who was the first team Bayer Leverkusen played when they went an entire season unbeaten in all competitions at home and abroad in 2023-24?”
