At the end of April 2002, one of the smaller German cities located along the banks of the Rhine, known for the pharmaceutical industry and football, was preparing for an unprecedented party...
Three rounds to the end of the Bundesliga, Bayer Leverkusen had five points more than Borussia Dortmund at the top, they soon reached the final of the Champions League over Manchester United, and the final of the German Cup was waiting for them... What days for a club that has never been the champion of Germany and of Europe.
And then, in just two weeks, the dream season turned into one of the biggest football nightmares in history. Bayer surrendered first place and the title to Borussia with defeats against Werder Bremen and Nürnberg in the round before the end of the championship, then in Berlin he was left without a trophy in the Cup against Schalke, and in the end he had to congratulate in Glasgow Zinedine Zidane on an unreal volley and Real on the European crown.
How is the team that was led in those years by masters like Mihaela Balak, Ze Roberta, Ulf Kirsten i Oliver Neuville and two seasons earlier in the last round of the Bundesliga, losing to Unterhaching also left them without a title (a point for Salatara was enough for them in a small Bavarian town).
Years passed, Leverkusen remained Neverkusen, and then a new hope was born two decades later when probably no one expected it. Or rather, no one believed...
In October 2022, the "pharmacists" had only one triumph after eight rounds of the Bundesliga, and instead of Gerard Seoane arrived Xabi Alonso - a big playing name, former ace of Liverpool, Real Madrid and Bayern, but coach without experience.
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The legendary Basque already put many things in place during that season, and then he did something that even Bayern Munich did not during the last 11 years of dominance - Leverkusen is undefeated in all competitions this season, and today, with a victory over Werder, they could finally and forever to delete that Neverkuzen.
42
matches played by Bayer this season in all competitions and they have never been defeated - they have 37 wins and five draws. Since European competitions have been played, only Eusebio's Benfica in the 48s (44), Glasgow Rangers (1992 - 93/43) and Juventus (2011 - 12/XNUMX) have gone longer unbeaten than the team from Leverkusen.
If he doesn't do it today, he will certainly in one of the remaining five rounds, because neither Bayern (nor Stuttgart) believe that a miracle can happen.
After all, there is hardly anyone who thinks that a team that played 42 games in all competitions this season and was never defeated, and that many times won a match that seemed lost, is capable of missing a historic chance.
Everything is ready for the coronation Xabi Alonso, but also his great guys like Florian Wirtz, Victor Boniface, Alex Grimaldo, Granit Xhaka, Jonas Hoffman, Jeremy Frimpong, Patrick Schick...
And, after that, there are the Cup final (against the second division Kaiserslautern) and the final of the Europa League - maybe the three crowns painfully eluded Bayern 22 years ago, but now it could really be a triple celebration along the banks of the Rhine.
Bonus video:
