The reigning champions come to Augsburg: On matchday 14, FCA welcomes Bayer 04 Leverkusen to the WWK ARENA. The guests, who were almost invincible last season, have not yet found the dominance of last season this season.
Double winners, 43 wins in 53 games and only one defeat: Bayer Leverkusen was the team of the hour last season. Leverkusen delivered across all competitions until the end and won two titles. Coach Xabi Alonso's team only suffered a significant defeat in the Europa League final. Last but not least, the mentality of deciding games in the last minutes was what set the guests apart next weekend.
The FCA also felt this ability during their last guest appearance in the WWK ARENA in January 2024: After a self-sacrificing fight by the Fuggerstadt team, it seemed as if they would earn a point against the Rhinelanders at the start of the second half of the season. However, in the fourth minute of injury time, Exequiel Palacios redeemed his team and scored to make the final score 0-1.
Leverkusen's success was and is shared across many shoulders. In addition to shooting stars like Florian Wirtz and top goalscorer Victor Boniface, Alejandro Grimaldo, who contributed 24 scorer points to the championship, as well as Granit Xhaka and Robert Andrich also played a central role. After the season, the squad largely stayed together. Only the departure of Odilon Kossounou was recorded, who was promptly replaced by ex-Leipzig player Nordi Mukiele. Captain Jonathan Tah also remained under the Bayer Cross despite high-profile offers, where he is now playing for the ninth season in a row.
One of the most important changes at Leverkusen concerns someone who was last on the pitch in 2017. Xabi Alonso took over as head coach in October 2022 and impressively led the team from 15th place in the table back to international business. In the following season he continued to build on this success – characterized by a dominant, possession-oriented style of play.
The Werkself are currently in third place in the Bundesliga. Even if, in addition to seven wins, we drew five times and lost once, you can be quite satisfied with how the season has gone so far. Bayer recently celebrated an important success in the Champions League: On Tuesday, Alonso's protégés defeated Inter Milan 1-0 and thus cemented their ambitions in international competition.
Despite his successes, the reigning double winner has not yet been able to completely repeat the overwhelming dominance of last season. The Werkself showed weaknesses, especially against teams from the bottom third of the table: against Holstein Kiel, despite an early 2-0 lead, they only managed one point in the end. VfL Bochum also got their second point of the season against Leverkusen of all places – and with similar tactics. The equalizer only came in stoppage time and caused an unexpected setback.
In order not to lose touch with the top, the Leverkusen team cannot afford any slip-ups in the year-end spurt. So an exciting game is inevitable.
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