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It wasn't supposed to happen like that. They had shown they could fall with the finish in sight - and how - against Zinedine Zidane's famous, thunderous left foot at Hampden Park, or against a rampant Bayern Munich in the Covid DFB Pokal final in Berlin. For a more modern touch, you could even play last year's Europa League semi-final under Xabi Alonso, in which José Mourinho and Roma miraculously survived a barrage in the BayArena (23 Leverkusen shots to Roma's). Not this season, however.
The biggest testament to Bayer Leverkusen's extraordinary season is that losing Wednesday's Europa League final in Dublin (and comprehensively at that) to Atalanta felt more like a shock than a shock. Die Werkself to get there in the first place to fluff their lines. Fifty-one games unbeaten to that point doesn't quite do it justice. Alonso's side were huge, trampling everyone in their path and, on the occasions when they fell behind, eventually closing in on their opponents with increasing inevitability. The later-than-late equalizers and winners against Stuttgart, Borussia Dortmund, Qarabag, Roma - the list goes on - had the feel of one of Europe's giants making gravity count, rather than an upstart, first-time champion, as they were in the Bundesliga this season.
Related: European football: Xhaka seals double for Leverkusen; PSG clinching treble
When we say 'it' shouldn't have happened, we mean what Stephan von Nocks described for Kicker as 'a collective blackout' at the Aviva Stadium against Gian Piero Gasperini's rampant side. Why we should actually pinch ourselves is in response to a season that has far exceeded the wildest daydreams, let alone any reasonable expectation. Leverkusen has gone from a team to be enjoyed and lightly patronized, a simulation of top-level football, a rehearsal for the big time before the real thing comes along for their best players at Bayern, Dortmund or wherever, to the bogeyman, the irresistible, the tide that you cannot hold back. They have transformed Germany and the continent's expectations of them, and their expectations of themselves.
So second division Kaiserslautern could normally have benefited from popular support in Saturday's Pokal final ("and I have never been such an underdog in my career as in this match," said their 70-year-old coach Friedhelm Funkel in the days leading up to the match), that felt less the case this time. It felt like Leverkusen deserved to complete the double for everything they've done in this incredible season, rather than it ending in a whimper with back-to-back defeats in the final.
Because even if an undefeated Bundesliga season had never been achieved, the loss against Atalanta threatened to sour things. "It wasn't like Bayer," complained midfielder Jonas Hofmann, underscoring how standards have risen. Granit Xhaka, Alonso's surrogate persona and voice on the pitch, spoke for the entire squad off it. "The disappointment is enormous," he admitted after a full-time stint in Dublin. He also challenged his team to show what they are really made of. "Now we have to see what character this team really has," he continued. "When you are undefeated in 51 games, it is easy to support each other. Now it's time to see which player has character, which player can get up quickly and keep going. This defeat should not ruin our season."
It wasn't just the first defeat, and the chances of going undefeated for an entire competitive season, that ultimately dissolved into nothing, but also the way it happened. Troubled, harried and harried as never before this season, Leverkusen were forced into laxity and inaccuracy at the end of a campaign defined by their constant control, and by an Atalanta team using the best moves of their opponents and supposed better players, which kept them fresh. by using their bench expertly, both in recent weeks and in the final itself.
Berlin therefore became a battle with their own emotions for Leverkusen. Former star Michael Ballack, a mainstay of the 2002 side who hit the high notes in less than a fortnight, echoed the feelings of many when he suggested they can 'only beat themselves', perhaps not just referring to the quality gap between his old club and Kaiserslautern, but on the need to respond to what happened in Dublin. The question shouldn't have been there after this season, after everything they've done and been through, but it was, and in more than a whisper. What if we haven't really changed as a club?
It was clear that they were not taking any risks in the final. Lukas Hradecky was restored to goal after Matej Kovar had played 17 of the previous 18 cup games, both domestically and in Europe, with the tougher, more physical players such as Robert Andrich and Patrick Schick also called up to the XI. What Leverkusen ultimately achieved may not have been the win they wanted, but it was the win they needed.
The value of Hradecky's recall was evident in the first five minutes of the final, when the Finn leapt to his right to parry a fierce shot from Daniel Hanslik. The assurance it gave his team was palpable, and from that moment on - especially after that Leverkusen defeated Fortuna. Düsseldorf in the semi-finals during the opening days of April. Alonso's reaction to the goal was also a sign of the relief in the camp. Often so circumspect, the coach ran around his technical area and jumped into the air, a nod to his celebration in Lisbon in 2014, as he ran onto the pitch to greet Sergio Ramos. ' last-gasp equalizer for Real Madrid when he was suspended.
It turned out not to be that simple, with a harsh second yellow card for Odilon Kossounou on the brink of half-time leaving the champions a man behind, their first red card of the season coming in the final game. As he has done so often this season, Alonso rearranged at half-time and Kaiserslautern were kept at bay in relative comfort, even if the second goal never came. The festivities that started on Saturday evening on the field of the Olympiastadion continued on Sunday evening in a packed BayArena.
When that well-deserved party comes to an end, or perhaps even before, Alonso will make plans for the next step. The club's general manager, Fernando Carro, made it clear that Leverkusen already has its sights set on even bigger and better, telling the players on the pitch in Dublin full-time to learn from the experience "before the Champions League final next years in Munich." Alonso has not chosen to stay to mark the time or weigh his future options. With Bayern Munich in full swing on the pitch and in the boardroom, there is an opportunity to consolidate their grip at home. The plan is to keep the squad together this summer and with Alonso staying (and star playmaker Florian Wirtz very likely to follow suit), it should be easier to do that.
The performance in Berlin may not have been the all-singing, all-dancing victory lap that many expected in the Leverkusen final. What it was instead was Alonso's side showing how they are as much about talent as they are about craft, constantly adapting and evolving to find solutions, as they have done to astonishing effect all season. They are real champions. And they plan to keep it that way.
