Bayer Leverkusen had been here before so many times that deja vu doesn’t really cover it. Swarming over inferior opponents with a swagger and a nonchalance that few can match, only to be left sweating in the final stages over whether the reward would arrive. This time, though, they had the answer. Just about.
We always knew that Leverkusen’s 2024-25 season would be different; the morning after the night before, and what a night it had been. A below-elite stature of club might be expected to have its team dismantled after the sort of unprecedented season of success that they’d had but Leverkusen were about as future-proofed against that as it was possible to be – particularly after Xabi Alonso planted a flag by declaring that he would stay.
Yet personnel is one thing – retaining the relentless standards of the last campaign is proving something else. There have been hiccups – defensive gremlins, occasional wandering of individual and collective focus and a hefty helping of injuries, perhaps predictabe given the increased volume and workload of a Champions League campaign. However, Saturday’s win over St Pauli – a routine in the context of a long season – was deeply satisfying given the present in which it had context, with what had gone before and what is to come.
The first 20 minutes reran the classics. Florian Wirtz opened the scoring in the sixth, nutmegging a befuddled Eric Smith and poking the ball into the corner of the net almost in one movement (“A brilliant moment,” Alonso later enthused). Jonathan Tah then nodded in an inviting Aleix García corner at the back post and the spacey opening chimes of ATC’s Around The World (La La La La La) echoed around the BayArena again, just as they did when Die Werkself were pasting prone visitors this time last year. Leverkusen’s superiority was so vast that the score could have been anything.
Then, this season’s mood peeked around the door. St Pauli, limited but game, began to create opportunities. Guinea forward Morgan Guilavogui, buoyed by a first Bundesliga goal in last week’s win over Holstein Kiel, started to irritate the home defence along with Johannes Eggestein and Harrow-born Dapo Afolayan, long before Guilavogui smashed in a shot from a tricky angle to make the closing minutes even more tense. The afternoon changed from a skip to a crawl.
However, lessons have been learned. Leverkusen are only third (and seven points adrift of Bayern Munich) at the moment not because they have stacked up poor performances and not because of some existential wobble, but mainly because of the three successive draws they registered from the end of October leading up to the mid-November break for internationals. In that period they conceded late equalisers at Werder Bremen and winless bottom side Bochum, and couldn’t break through Stuttgart at BayArena despite perhaps their best performance of the season.
Performances for performances’ sake are not, of course, what champions are made of. Leverkusen achieved what they did last season not just through the headline dazzle, but by managing matches better than virtually any side in Europe. So if Alonso expressed his enjoyment of Wirtz’s work of art early on in this, he was at least as satisfied by the way his team saw out the game later on. Not stylishly, not always convincingly, but by sticking with it. “After the Kiel game, for example,” he said, referencing the game here in early October when his side frittered away a two-goal lead against the relegation favourites, “we talked about what we could do [differently]. Today it wasn’t spectacular, but we played more intelligently in the last few minutes. We need that, to realise which situation we are in, and that we have to fight for the points. The first half was good. The second was OK.”
As they ride out a non-stop programme – this came on the back of a 1-0 DfB Pokal win at Bayern last week and with Internazionale visiting in the Champions League on Tuesday – that is enough. Since the last pause for internationals Leverkusen have responded to that trio of frustrating league stalemates with five consecutive wins across all competitions, including last Tuesday’s win over Bayern, a fifth game against his former club as a coach without defeat for Alonso. Nathan Tella, who came on to nod in the winner at Bayern, played as an emergency centre-forward against St Pauli with Patrik Schick injured. With Amine Adli, Victor Boniface and Jonas Hofmann also missing, the 17-year-old Ukrainian Artem Stepanov is Alonso’s only fit striker.
While Tella had a pair of goals ruled out – one for a tight offside, one for a debatable foul on Manolis Saliakas – it was fitting that a goal by Tah, a defender, proved to be the winner. The 28-year-old centre-back has been prominent in the news this week, with his agent Pini Zahavi widely reported to have met with Barcelona sporting director Deco in Cologne, an encounter not denied by Tah when questioned after the game.
Antonio Rüdiger’s defensive partner for Germany is out of contract at the end of the season and Leverkusen’s acceptance that he will leave is at the point that no further offers are expected to Zahavi or the player. “Jonathan is a top guy and a top leader,” said Leverkusen’s sporting director Simon Rolfes to Sky. “We are currently happy that he is with us. Everyone knows each other’s position.” Even if Tah’s and Leverkusen’s futures will go in different directions from summer 2025 they are ideal companions for now, not longing for perfection but dealing with reality as it is. This resolve may not result in a repeat of last season’s trophy haul, but it will take this team a long way again.
Bayer Leverkusen 2-1 St Pauli, Bayern Munich 4-2 Heidenheim, Bochum 0-1 Werder Bremen, Borussia Mönchengladbach 1-1 Borussia Dortmund, Eintracht Frankfurt 2-2 Augsburg, Hoffenheim 1-1 Freiburg, Holstein Kiel 0-2 RB Leipzig, Stuttgart 3-2 Union Berlin, Wolfsburg 4-1 Mainz
Talking points
• Leverkusen’s next miracle could be in the Frauen-Bundesliga. Friday’s 1-0 over Wolfsburg put them top of the table and even if Bayern retook first place on goal difference with a win at Essen the following day, coach Roberto Patzöld’s team are punching well above their wait. “I can’t put it into words,” he told Magenta. “It’s unbelievable.”
• Somewhat less shocking was another episode of the Jamal Musiala show. Even with Harry Kane and Manuel Neuer absent, Vincent Kompany chose to leave his team’s technical leader on the bench against struggling Heidenheim. However, when Dayot Upamecano – who had scored Bayern’s 18th-minute opener – gifted an equaliser to Mathias Honsak, he sent the Germany star straight on. Five minutes later and Musiala had given Bayern back their lead after a typical slalom through and he got a second right at the end to wrap up a 4-2 win as the visitors pushed for an equaliser.
• Another England-reared dribbling sensation shone as Jamie Gittens added to his growing catalogue of wonder strikes, giving Dortmund the lead at Mönchengladbach in the battle of the Borussias before Kevin Stöger equalised with a controversial, VAR-verified penalty. Wolfsburg leapfrog BVB into fifth after a rousing win over Mainz (their fourth league victory in a row). Ralph Hasenhüttl’s side came from behind three times with substitute Jonas Wind scoring twice to clinch a 4-3 win.
• Leipzig built on last Wednesday’s resounding Pokal win over Eintracht Frankfurt by winning 2-0 at Kiel to re-enter the top four. It was a first Bundesliga win since late October sealed by André Silva’s first goal for the club since January 2023.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bayern Munich | 13 | 31 | 33 |
| 2 | Eintracht Frankfurt | 13 | 15 | 27 |
| 3 | Bayer Leverkusen | 13 | 10 | 26 |
| 4 | RB Leipzig | 13 | 7 | 24 |
| 5 | Wolfsburg | 13 | 7 | 21 |
| 6 | Borussia Dortmund | 13 | 4 | 21 |
| 7 | Freiburg | 13 | 0 | 21 |
| 8 | Stuttgart | 13 | 3 | 20 |
| 9 | Mainz | 13 | 5 | 19 |
| 10 | Werder Bremen | 13 | -4 | 19 |
| 11 | Borussia M'gladbach | 13 | 1 | 18 |
| 12 | Union Berlin | 13 | -2 | 16 |
| 13 | Augsburg | 13 | -9 | 16 |
| 14 | Hoffenheim | 13 | -7 | 13 |
| 15 | St Pauli | 13 | -6 | 11 |
| 16 | Heidenheim | 13 | -11 | 10 |
| 17 | Holstein Kiel | 13 | -20 | 5 |
| 18 | VfL Bochum | 13 | -24 | 2 |
