Soccer

Unbesiegbar – Bayer Leverkusen complete ‘Invincible’ domestic season

Xabi Alonso’s side only suffered defeat once all season.

Xabi Alonso guided Bayer Leverkusen to the league and cup double in Germany
Xabi Alonso guided Bayer Leverkusen to the league and cup double in Germany (Liam McBurney/PA)
By Tom White, PA Sport Data Journalist

Bayer Leverkusen finished their domestic season in Germany unbeaten after completing the Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal double with a 1-0 win over Kaiserslautern.

Leverkusen’s only defeat all season came with a 3-0 defeat to Atalanta in the Europa League final, and here the PA news agency looks at their remarkable record.

Invincibles

Alonso’s side clinched the title with five games remaining, deposing Germany’s dominant club Bayern Munich in spectacular style.

Draws with Borussia Dortmund and Stuttgart, emphatic wins over Eintracht Frankfurt and Bochum and Saturday’s result against Augsburg completed the first ever undefeated Bundesliga season – Bayern lost just one game in both the 1986-87 and 2012-13 seasons, previously the record in the competition.

Leverkusen finished with 28 wins and six draws from their 34 games, a total of 90 points with a goal difference of +65.

Xabi Alonso, centre, is doused with beer as Bayer Leverkusen celebrate the Bundesliga title after beating Werder Bremen (Martin Meissner/AP)
Xabi Alonso, centre, is doused with beer as Bayer Leverkusen celebrate the Bundesliga title after beating Werder Bremen (Martin Meissner/AP) (Martin Meissner/AP)

Alonso’s men finished the season with an overall season record of 43 wins and nine draws, 143 goals scored and only 41 conceded.

They netted five goals on seven separate occasions and four in a further five matches in all competitions, in addition to an 8-0 DFB-Pokal rout of fourth-tier Teutonia Ottensen.

Victor Boniface is the club’s leading scorer with 21 goals in all competitions, three more than Florian Wirtz. Leverkusen have kept 24 clean sheets at the other end.

Arsenal’s 2003-04 team earned the title of “The Invincibles” after winning the Premier League without losing a match – Alonso’s men now have the right to call themselves “Unbesiegbar” in the Bundesliga.

Xabi’s X-factor

Taking over a team second-bottom of the table in October of last season, Alonso worked wonders to lead Leverkusen to a sixth-placed finish and a Europa League semi-final before breaking new ground this season.

Across his 90 games in charge to date, Alonso has 60 wins – a remarkable 66.7 per cent rate – with 19 draws and 11 defeats. His side have scored 208 goals, averaging 2.36 per match, and conceding 88 or just under a goal per game.

Alonso was linked with Tottenham last summer and with Liverpool and Bayern – both clubs he represented as a player.

He has pledged his continued loyalty to Leverkusen, who will be hoping that remains the case as his stock rises.