Bayer Leverkusen, the strongest team in Europe: defeat of Bayern Munich and an emotional gesture from Xabi Alonso and his coaching staff

Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen beat Bayern Munich 3-0 this Saturday in a match that they clearly dominated for most of the ninety minutes and with which they took an important step towards the Bundesliga title, relegating the Bavarians to five points. distance. Only in the first minutes did Leverkusen not dominate, but as the minutes passed they looked more and more like the team that dominated the German tournament almost at will and showed no complexes against the Bavarian giant.

At the end of the match, the Spanish coach made an emotional gesture with his technical staff: he went to look for them so that they too could take part in the celebrations and made them applaud from all the fans who remained in the stadium.

Still undefeated this season (31 games without defeat), Xabi Alonso’s players won the three points thanks to goals from the Croatian Josip Stanisic (18) – on loan this season from Bayern -, the Spaniard Alejandro Grimaldo (49) and the Dutch Jeremie Frimpong (90+5), The latter scored when rival goalkeeper Manuel Neuer rose to the opposite area to look for a corner.

The two teams have already demonstrated the mutual respect they have with the teams. Both Xabi Alonso and Thomas Tuchel have changed their usual patterns in response to their rival’s characteristics.

Xabi Alonso swapped his usual defense of three central defenders for a line of four, giving Nathan Tella and Alejandro Grimaldo more attacking freedom on the flanks.

Tuchel, for his part, abandoned the four-man defense that Bayern usually uses and opted for three central defenders and two advanced full-backs, Mazraoui on the right and Boey on the left.

Probably the plan was to force Grimaldo and Tella to take on defensive duties.

In the initial phase in which they had some initiative, Bayern failed to produce noteworthy offensive actions and Leverkusen began to react until they took control of the actions.

The first warning came in the 9th minute, when Adli was about to steal a ball from Eric Dier, which would have left the path open towards Manuel Neuer’s goal. In the 11th, Adli himself, after a mistake by Dayot Upamecano, fired a shot at Neuer’s body.

In the 18th minute Tella runs in from the right and even though Kim Upamecano manages to avoid the worst. The subsequent throw-in resulted in Leverkusen’s goal. Robert Andrich sends a cross into the area which reaches the far post where Stasinic receives it and scores with a right-footed shot.

The goal gave confidence to Leverkusen, who began to clearly dominate on the pitch. He had more arrival, had more ball and won most of the duels for the ball.

Bayern began the second half by trying to keep the ball in their ranks, but in the 50th minute, after collaborating with Tella, they scored the second with a shot inside the area.

After the 2-0, Tuchel corrected himself and returned to his usual pattern and sent on the field Thomas Müller and Joshua Kimmich, who had started the match on the bench.

Nothing helped. Not even the subsequent entry of Mahtys Tel and Eric Maxim Choupo Moting. Bayern also failed to create clear chances and Leverkusen were closer to the third – in the 78th minute Jeremy Frimpong smashed a ball into the post.

Already in added time came the third, scored by Frimpong with a shot into an empty net from almost halfway when Neuer had decided to join the attack.