Xabi Alonso's Leverkusen: First Bundesliga title in 120 years

Bayer 04 Leverkusen - The Champions

Bayer Leverkusen, who are preparing to celebrate their 120th anniversary on July 1, became Bundesliga champion for the first time in its history. With this, they also broke Bayern Munich's 11-year championship streak.

Bayer Leverkusen hosted Werder Bremen on Matchday 29 and won 5-0. With this result, Xabi Alonso's students rose to 79 points and claimed the Bundesliga crown with five weeks to spare. Leverkusen led 1-0 at the half from a Victor Boniface penalty in the 25th minute, extended the advantage to 3-0 with excellent goals from Granit Xhaka (minute 60) and Florian Wirtz (68'). Wirtz completed his hat-trick with goals in the 83rd and 90th minutes.

Wirtz left his mark on Bayer Leverkusen's championship run. With the weekend hat-trick, Wirtz increased his Bundesliga goal count to 11 and he tallied 10 assists thus far this season. Overall, with 17 goals and 18 assists in all tournaments, the 20-year-old shows he's got a bright future.

Making Bundesliga history and breaking records

Along with the championship, Alonso's students also broke a record and set the bar high. Bayer Leverkusen is undefeated in 29 Bundesliga games this season (25 wins, four draws), a new league record for most games without a loss to start a season. Leverkusen bested the record set by Pep Guardiola's 2013-2104 Bayern Munich team, which went unbeaten for 28 matches to open that campaign.

Leverkusen also extended its unbeaten streak in all competitions this season to 43 matches (38-5-0). In addition, the German team matched Juventus' 43-game unbeaten streak in domestic games. Antonio Conte's Italian side set that mark across two seasons in 2011-2012. Xabi Alonso's men can snap the tie with Juventus with a win or draw at Borussia Dortmund on April 21.

The Only One - Xabi Alonso

"This is not just for us. This is for so many people. They have been chasing this dream for so many years."

- Xabi Alonso

Xabi Alonso started his coaching career in Real Madrid's academy system in 2018, before becoming the head of Real Sociedad's B team. The 42-year-old coach then moved to Germany.

He took over at Leverkusen on Oct. 5, 2022, after Bundesliga Matchday 8. Bayer Leverkusen was in 17th place, the club's second-worst start since 1979. The turnaround was swift and Alsono guided the team to a sixth-place finish that season.

Just 18 months later, he made history and thrilled the club's long-suffering fans by winning the first championship in their history. This is also Alonso's first title as a coach and he managed to do it in his full season as manager of a top-flight team.

Now the question is: Can Leverkusen finish the season as undefeated champions?

Let's take a moment and watch the fans celebrate this long-awaited and well-deserved championship with wild joy. Congratulations, Bayer Leverkusen! You deserve this!