Jeremie Frimpong jumped into coach Xabi Alonso‘s arms, the fans celebrated the last-minute equalizer like a victory – and the almost indomitable Bayer Leverkusen threw their arms up at the final whistle. The German champions’ super series continued even after the dramatic 2-2 (0-0) against VfB Stuttgart; this time Robert Andrich (90+6) ensured that Leverkusen remained unbeaten in the 31st Bundesliga game .
“I can’t put it into words, it’s unbelievable. We can happily score earlier, crazy,” said goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky on Sky: “At the moment, no opponent wants to play against us, they know that we’ll come at some point.”
Even Alonso seemed at a loss after his champion team’s recent last-minute madness. “There is no explanation why this happens in football,” he said: “I can’t say anything – but it was good for us.”
Before the Europa League duel with AS Roma, Alonso’s team once again showed morale and continued their incredible series of successes. Leverkusen haven’t lost in 46 competitive games, Andrich’s goal shortly before the end was the 15th competitive goal of the season in stoppage time.
In the meeting between perhaps the two best teams of this season, Stuttgart national players Chris Führich (47th) and Deniz Undav (57th) presented. But Amine Adli (61st) and Andrich hit back in a rousing second half. Nevertheless, Leverkusen has to improve with a view to the semi-final first leg on Thursday (9 p.m./RTL) in Rome.
Alonso had warned in advance about one of “the best teams in Europe this season” – not without reason. In the first half of the season, Stuttgart wrested a draw from their team (1:1), and in the spectacular cup quarter-finals, Bayer only prevailed thanks to a late goal (3:2).