Sport
Updated: May 12, 2024, 05:24 pm
Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen crushed hosts VfL Bochum 5-0 on Sunday to stretch their remarkable unbeaten run across all competitions this season to 50 consecutive matches.
On Thursday Xabi Alonso’s team, aiming for a treble of titles, surpassed Benfica’s long-standing European unbeaten record set from 1963 to 1965 with a 2-2 draw against AS Roma that sent them through to the Europa League final.
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On Saturday they did not ease off against lowly Bochum — the last team to beat Leverkusen almost a year ago — scoring twice late in the first half versus the last Bundesliga team to beat them in the previous season.
Patrik Schick put Leverkusen in the driving seat in the 41st minute and Victor Boniface doubled their lead with a penalty in first-half added time, with Bochum down to 10 men following a straight red card for Felix Passlack in the 15th minute.
“I think already the Bundesliga — you can’t imagine how much that means for the club or the fans,” Leverkusen midfielder Robert Andrich said. “We’ll lift the trophy next week in our stadium. It’s going to be very emotional. And then we go to Dublin and we go to Berlin. We want to get two titles there and then go on vacation with the triple in our backpack.”
Amine Adli made it 3-0 in the 76th and Josip Stanisic added another in the 86th with a low drive before delivering an assist for Alejandro Grimaldo to score in stoppage time with a tap-in.
Leverkusen, who face Atalanta in the Europa League showpiece match and Kaiserslautern in the German Cup final, have 87 points with one Bundesliga game left this season.
Bayern Munich, 2-0 winners against VfL Wolfsburg earlier on Sunday, are 15 points behind in second place, while Alonso’s team can become the first team in Bundesliga history to finish a season unbeaten if they avoid a loss to Augsburg at home on Saturday.
Sunday’s win over Bochum also meant Leverkusen became only the third team in Bundesliga history to remain unbeaten in every away match of a season.
“After that red card it was a completely different game for us,” Alonso told a press conference. “I am very satisfied with the result. It was important for us. Now we have a super goal on Saturday to win the title without any defeat. That has never happened before.”
