Xabi Alonso's Bayer Leverkusen beat Bayern Munich 3-0 this Saturday in a match that they clearly dominated for much of the ninety minutes and with which they took an important step towards the Bundesliga title by relegating the Bavarians five points away.
Only in the first minutes Leverkusen was not dominant, but as the minutes passed they looked more and more like the team that has dominated the German tournament almost at will and that showed no complexes against the Bavarian giant.
At the end of the match, the Spanish coach had an emotional gesture with his coaching staff: he went to look for them so that they could also be part of the celebrations and made them applaud by all the fans who remained in the stadium.
Kapitalne obrazki w Leverkusenđ
Xabi Alonso zebraĆ sztab.
Hradecky ruszyĆ do kibicĂłw#domBundesligi pic.twitter.com/pJJ8qpPM2h
â Viaplay Sport Polska (@viaplaysportpl) February 10, 2024
Still undefeated this season (
31 games without defeat
), Xabi Alonso's players took the three points thanks to the goals of the Croatian Josip Stanisic (18) -on loan this season from Bayern-, the Spanish Alejandro Grimaldo (49) , and the Dutchman Jeremie Frimpong (90+5), the latter scored when the rival goalkeeper Manuel Neuer went up to the opposite area to look for a corner.
The two teams already showed the mutual respect they have with the lineups.
Both Xabi Alonso and Thomas Tuchel changed their usual schemes in response to the characteristics of the rival.
Xabi Alonso changed his usual defense of three centre-backs for a line of four, giving Nathan Tella and Alejandro Grimaldo more offensive freedoms on the wings.
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.
The plan was probably precisely to force Grimaldo and Tella to take on defensive tasks.
In the initial stage in which they had some initiative, Bayern failed to produce offensive actions worthy of mention and Leverkusen began to fight back until they ended up assuming 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 an open highway towards Manuel Neuer's goal.
In the 11th, Adli himself, after an error by Dayot Upamecano, fired a shot at Neuer's body.
In the 18th minute Tella sneaked in from the right and although Kim Upamecano managed to avoid the worst.
The following throw-in brought Leverkusen's goal.
Robert Andrich sent a cross into the area that reached the far post where Stasinic received it and scored with a shot from his right foot.
The goal gave confidence to Leverkusen, who began to command clearly on the field.
He had more arrival, had the ball more and won most of the duels for the ball.
Bayern began the second half trying to keep the ball in their ranks, but in the 50th minute, after teaming up with Tella, they scored the second with a shot inside the area.
After 2-0, Tuchel corrected and returned to his usual scheme and sent Thomas MĂŒller and Joshua Kimmich, who had started the game on the bench, onto the field.
Nothing helped.
Neither did the subsequent entry of Mahtys Tel and Eric Maxim Choupo Moting.
Bayern did not even manage to create clear chances and Leverkusen was closer to third - in the 78th minute Jeremy Frimpong crashed a ball against the post.
Already in stoppage time came the third, scored by Frimpong with a shot into an empty goal from near the middle of the field when Neuer had decided to join the attack.