After the end of the super series, the most important thing for championship coach Xabi Alonso is to come to terms with the first Bundesliga defeat in more than 15 months. “It was a long series, but now it’s over, there are no more records,” said the head coach of Bayer Leverkusen after the unbelievable 2:3 defeat against RB Leipzig despite a deserved and commanding 2:0 lead. “We made very big mistakes after the 2:0 and we have to learn from these mistakes,” said the 42-year-old after the match. Before that, Leverkusen had remained unbeaten in 35 Bundesliga games.
“It’s interesting to me how the team deals with it. Unfortunately there is an international break and I don’t have the players in the dressing room tomorrow,” said Leverkusen’s coach. He was probably disappointed, but not necessarily surprised, that after the narrow victories in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart, at the start of the Bundesliga in Mönchengladbach and in the cup in Jena, his team did not perform at top level against Leipzig.
Two former Bayer professionals initiate a turnaround
Everything was set up for the first home game of the season. A double strike before half-time from Jeremie Frimpong and Alejandro Grimaldo (39th/45th) gave the hosts a 2-0 lead. Shortly afterwards, the two former Bayer pros Benjamin Henrichs and Kevin Kampl took the chance to make it 1-2: Henrichs crossed, Kampl scored his first header goal in the Bundesliga. “In the dressing room, we reconciled ourselves and told ourselves that everything was still possible. Today we struck with ice-cold precision. It’s really special for me that I scored here,” said Kampl. Lois Openda did the rest with two goals (57th/80th), with Hradecky’s replacement Matej Kovar not making the best impression in the Bayer goal.
Defender Jonathan Tah, who finally has clarity and his place in the team after all the transfer rumors, reminded of the class of the opponent. “This is a good team that takes advantage of every chance we give them,” explained the international, who is now entering his tenth season with Bayer.
