DUESSELDORF, Germany: Xabi Alonso and Bayer Leverkusen have experienced almost everything soccer has to offer over the last year. Having to rebound from a loss, not so much.
Leverkusen go into Saturday’s game against Hoffenheim having lost their last league match 3-2 to Leipzig. It was the first Bundesliga game Leverkusen had lost since May 2023.
Alonso said Friday he was trying to restore concentration and focus that seemed to be lacking in a game where Leverkusen had 27 shots, but Leipzig’s sudden, incisive counterattacks made the difference.
“We need to have better control when we don’t have the ball,” the coach said Friday. “We have to be stable without the ball, we have to be aggressive, not too passive. I think we conceded chances too simply and that is a football topic but also a mental topic, too.”
Leverkusen’s unbeaten run last season was no ordinary streak. So often did Alonso’s team score late goals to save a point or win a crucial game that it began to feel inevitable, even like part of their identity — like a Hollywood director whose movies all feature improbable final-act twists.
Leverkusen’s unbeaten run in all competitions ended at 51 games when the team lost to Atalanta in May in the Europa League final. Their unbeaten record in German competition hit 15 months before the loss to Leipzig, including the only unbeaten Bundesliga season by any team in history.
The recent international break means Alonso and his team have had two weeks to mull over the Leipzig loss ahead of the away game at Hoffenheim — and a Champions League visit to Feyenoord on Thursday — but there’s been little face-to-face contact between Alonso and his many players on international duty.
“It’s express preparation, express conversation,” he said. “It’s not so many things but there are important things to improve. We had enough time to analyze and to show that and to discuss how we can do that better, so hopefully we have a better, more complete performance.”
Alonso had words of support for defender and vice-captain Jonathan Tah, who was substituted at halftime in Germany’s 2-2 draw with the Netherlands on Tuesday after struggling at times to deal with the Dutch forward.
Tah is a “top player” who returned to the club with a positive attitude after the game, Alonso said.
Like Leipzig, Hoffenheim are another team that Leverkusen beat implausibly late last season.
Back on March 30, Hoffenheim were on course for a 1-0 win that would have shocked European soccer. But then Robert Andrich scored in the 88th minute and Patrik Schick in the 91st, and Leverkusen won 2-1. It was just another gravity-defying feat in a season that was full of them.