At 21:30 on Saturday, May 18, Beijing time, the Bundesliga will usher in the final round of matches this season. In all nine matches, the most notable was Marcos Alonso's new champions hosting a desperate Augsburg side, a game that would be unbeaten in 34 games for the Bundesliga, the first time in 60 years since the Bundesliga kicked off in 1963.
Although this is Alonso's first full season in charge of Bayer Leverkusen, the former Liverpool, Real Madrid and Bayern legend has led the team to set new records one after another, becoming a veritable "record crusher".
Since beating Eintracht Frankfurt 5-1 on 5 May, Bayer Leverkusen have become the first team in Bundesliga history to go 32 games unbeaten; In the second leg of the Europa League semi-final against Roma, the team scored two goals in a row after 80 minutes after 0-2 to equalize, which was the 17th stoppage time goal of the pharmaceutical company this season, the most in Europe; In the weekend's 5-0 win away at Bochum, Grimador's 93rd-minute goal extended that tally to 18.
At the beginning of the season, when England captain Harry Kane joined Bayern Munich for 100 million euros, probably not many people doubted that Bayern would easily complete the 12th consecutive league title and Kane win the trophy for the first major competition. But the fact is that Alonso led the young Bayer Leverkusen to challenge, unbeaten in 33 rounds with 27 wins and six draws so far this season, and has the absolute upper hand in the double round-robin dialogue with Bayern Munich with a score of 2-2, 3-0. Stepping on the top of the Bundesliga hegemon, the first league championship in the history of the pharmaceutical company in 120 years is unprecedented.
Under Alonso's tutelage, Bayer Leverkusen has been excellent both offensively and defensively this season. In the Bundesliga, they have scored 87 goals in 33 games and conceded only 23 goals, although the number of goals is behind Bayern's 92 goals, but the number of goals conceded is 18 fewer than Bayern's, which also proves the consistency of Alonso's team in the league, and the good transition between attack and defense ensures that the pharmaceutical company has been on the road all the way.
After the opponent Augsburg completed the league relegation task ahead of schedule, the "vacation mode" has been opened in advance in recent rounds, and they have lost all the past four rounds of the league, including 1-3 Eintracht Frankfurt and 1-5 Dortmund. Such a "rotten" performance is likely to be vulnerable in front of the pharmaceutical companies that still have the German Cup and Europa League finals to play and urgently need to maintain their condition.
But Pharma can't rejoice too soon, having faced Augsburg in their last 11 Bundesliga matches, although they have the absolute upper hand with a 9-2 record and a 4-1 away and 5-1 home wins in the 2021-2022 season. However, last season, the pharmaceutical company was beaten 1-2 at home and 0-1 away to Augsburg, with the 1-0 defeat at home coming after Alonso took charge midway through the season.
In the first round of this season, against Augsburg, the pharmaceutical factory barely won the opponent with a score of 1-0 with 30 shots on goal in the whole game, only thanks to the stunner goal of midfielder Palacios in the 90th minute. Facing Augsburg at home in the final round of the season, Pharma must not take the magical 2023-2024 season lightly if they want to end the magical 2023-2024 season with an unbeaten record.
In addition to this league game, Bayer Leverkusen have two major cup finals to play. At 3 o'clock on May 23, they will face Serie A powerhouse Atalanta in the Europa League final, the "true blue and black" just lost 0-1 to Juventus last weekend and lost the chance to win the Italian Cup. Both teams are very attacking and it was definitely a very good game.
Three days after the Europa League final, Bayer Leverkusen will face Kaiserslautern at 2 o'clock on May 26 in the German Cup final.
If they can win the Europa League and the German Cup, then Alonso's side will have a crazy record of three consecutive titles in a season, which is probably only matched by one of his mentors, Pep Guardiola, who led Barcelona to six crowns when he debuted.