Early on Sunday evening Bayern Munich’s players arrived a few at a time in a swish restaurant that had been opened just for them, as they prepared to commemoratea 33rd Bundesliga title(34 if you include the pre-Bundesliga crown of 1932) not quite as they had hoped, in their street clothes rather than their football strips. Bild even claimed that as Freiburg took the lead late in the first half against Bayer Leverkusen on the big screen in front of the Bayern squad (a game the 2024 champions needed to win to mathematically prolong the race) there was a loud exclamation of “Scheiße!” from at least one player who had wanted Bayern to officially finish the job themselves at home to Borussia Mönchengladbach next Saturday.
It had not quite been the titanic end that anybody had hoped for, with Bayern letting in a 95th-minute Yussuf Poulsen equaliser thatstopped themofficially sealing it on Saturday, Harry Kane suspended so he couldn’t take part at all and Leverkusen getting a leveller in the fourth minute of stoppage time at Freiburg on Sunday which ended up meaning little to anyone apart from the hosts and their rivals for Champions League qualification.
It did, however, epitomise the struggle. There will be some who seek to diminish the achievements of Bayern, of Kanedespite winning his first major trophy, of Vincent Kompany in his first season of elite-level head coaching, crying out that the house always wins. Yet the context is everything. Xabi Alonso’s Leverkusen have turned the Bundesliga upside down in the last two and a half years. Even the first year of Kane in the Bundesliga wasn’t enough to deny them. It has taken England’s captain being joined by the magnificent Michael Olise, the continued progression of Jamal Musiala (surely now the Bundesliga’s best player) and the unlikely influence of Kompany, evolving the Bayern environment into something slightly more holistic, to restore a status quo of sorts.
Seeing Bayern with a worthy opponent for the first time since Jürgen Klopp brought Borussia Dortmund to the top has been exhilarating. The sense is, though, that Alonso’s touchline celebration of Jonathan Tah’s equaliser in Freiburg – big smile, little leap, clenched fist – might have just said it all. He wasn’t celebrating what it was but what had been, in that incredible last season but in almost every moment since his October 2022 arrival, propellingDie Werkselffrom the bottom to higher than where they thought the top was, shredding every notion of impossible along the way. Tah’s flicked header was a reminder of all those late comebacks, the improbable result-from-the-jaws-of-defeat moments that stacked up last season and even, semi-regularly, this term. Yet removed from any sort of real sporting meaning for the team it felt like a tribute, a nod to what coach and players had achieved together which, it feels like, is coming to an end.
And it has felt like that for a while. Alonso is widely expected to replace Carlo Ancelotti at Real Madrid, with club and coach in Nord Rhine-Westphalia sitting in limbo until the terms and the timings of the Italian’s departure for the Spanish capital are agreed. “Hand on heart,” sighed Granit Xhaka after Sunday’s game, “I think it’s easier for every team, for every player, when you know who’s going to be on the sidelines next year. But that shouldn’t be an excuse for the last few weeks.” Xhaka lamented the scratchy form and missed opportunities that have followed Champions League elimination by Bayern. The former Arsenal man, now Leverkusen’s unofficial spokesman, non-mincer of words and Alonso’s authority on the field, couldn’t avoid a sense of finality even as he said that he hoped the coach would stay. “We had him for two years,” said the captain. “Whether we have him for a third year is not my job to say. But no matter what happens, we had a great time.”
So what next? It is not only Alonso’s future that lies at the heart of the equation but that of Florian Wirtz. Since returning from the muscle injury that undercut the money stretch of Leverkusen’s season the No 10 has been short of his imperious best and he was quiet on Sunday afternoon – right up until the moment where he wasn’t, skating past a brace of challenges and steering in a fine shot from the edge of the box to drag his team back into the game and mount the platform for that next late comeback.
If there was one moment that defined this season, the battle between Bayern and Leverkusen and the destiny of the title, it was back in mid-February with Wirtz again at the centre. It was the first minute of stoppage time between the two teams at the BayArena and with the score goalless and Manuel Neuer having just blocked an effort from Amine Adli. It fell to Wirtz, surrounded by traffic in the Bayern area. Traffic that he managed to extricate himself from in the blink of an eye. All that remained was the finishing touch but staggeringly,he put it wide. A hush fell over the stadium; everyone knew that was the moment. It would have shortened an eight-point lead to five but regardless of the numbers, it never really felt as if Leverkusen got that close again, either in Bundesliga or in that Champions League tie in which Bayern crushed their hopes and their spirit in time-honoured fashion.
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Before missing that chance in February’sTopSpiel,Wirtz had commanded the game. Bayern could not get near him. It had looked as if the 22-year-old’s reign would continue, with his future not tied to Alonso’s and the contours of an extended contract broadly agreed. Yet as with Alonso, the months have gone by with the sound of silence becoming more deafening. Now Bayern are preparing for their push, set to dip into their reserve cash to pair Wirtz with Musiala despite their expensive contract renewals of spring. That would be a sad end to a satisfying tussle for supremacy in theBundesliga, which has been so in both the direct confrontations and at a distance. It could survive the exit of Alonso, but not of Wirtz as well.
A more improbable return to the status quo is that of Dortmund coming to within touching distance of a return to the Champions League. Niko Kovac’s team continued their hot streak and their return from the wilderness with a 4-0 thrashing of Wolfsburg which lifted them to fourth overnight on Saturday, although Freiburg reclaimed that final Champions League spot with their Sunday point. With two games to go, it’s on.
After the humbling at Signal Iduna Park, an eighth straight game without a win, Ralph Hasenhüttl was fired, with Wolfsburg drifting in mid-table meaninglessness.
Poulsen’s goal, by the way, was much more than just an irritant to Bayern. It was potentially vital for Leipzig, now in sixth but only two points behind Freiburg as a battle royale for the top four is set up. For Freiburg’s Julian Schuster to make it in his debut season would be sensational – but they travel next to Holstein Kiel, the team that refuse to go down and pulled off a brilliant 3-1 win at Augsburg this weekend to keep alive their chance of getting the relegation playoff spot (Kiel also travel to Dortmund, who they beat in January, on the final day).
Jonathan Burkhardt’s equaliser for Mainz stopped Eintracht Frankfurt getting the win they needed to clinch top four in Sunday’s late game but they need an absolute maximum of two points to make sure.