Xabi Alonso and unbeaten Bayer Leverkusen rewrote history but mentions too for Stuttgart and Harry Kane’s wonder goal Bayer Leverkusen’s double (almost treble)-winning season was so stellar that to describe it as such, or as the Bundesliga’s first-ever unbeaten season, almost undersells it. Xabi Alonso’s side were daring, thrilling fare throughout the campaign, signalling how serious they were to the world in late January by destroying incumbents Bayern Munich 3-0 at BayArena. They won the title at the first opportunity – again in great style, beating Werder Bremen 5-0 – and Alonso’s coaching skill was apparent at every turn, managing his squad through injuries and fatigue and expertly flipping the script in game, besides getting unexpected levels out of players like Jonathan Tah, Lukas Hradecky and Robert Andrich. Continue reading...

Stuttgart share Leverkusen’s growth of having finished this campaign with a barely believable 40 points more than last From start to finish the afternoon that confirmed Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen as unbeaten Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen was what has come to be typical of them. The voracious feasting on opponents’ mistakes, as Amine Adli did to provide Victor Boniface with the opener. The evidence that Xabi Alonso has drawn things from these players they never dared believe were there, when midfield destroyer Robert Andrich tucked in an artful rabona. The false tension, when Augbsurg teenager Mert Kömür scored a goal worthy of the style of Alonso’s team to bring the deficit back to just one, but we knew Leverkusen were never going to blow it. Yet the moment that really captured Die Werkself’s imperious manner wasn’t a moment on the field. It came after, in the celebrations, when captain Lukas Hradecky ascended to the capo’s podium at the front of the Kurve, taking the Meisterschale with him. The Finland goalkeeper handed the trophy over to fans at the front of the throng, so they too could raise the Bundesliga among their peers. It was a beautiful gesture and a very trusting one. Hradecky didn’t guide it around and had no worries that it would come back in one piece. That trademark Alonso calm that has given them clarity in crucial moments was even endemic at party time. Continue reading...

On a night when Wales knew they needed the fresh blood to fire, how they delivered. A comprehensive victory over Finland means Wales have now won each of their last three playoffs in Cardiff and if they beat Poland here in the final on Tuesday they will secure a place at the Euro 2024 finals in Germany this summer. None of the goalscorers featured at Euro 2016 but all played a significant part in ensuring their hopes of reaching a fourth major tournament in five remain very much alive. The pick of the goals was an unstoppable free-kick from Neco Williams but it was Daniel James, on his 50th appearance, who capped the ­scoring, rounding the Finland goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky after a calamitous error by a dawdling Miro Tenho, the Finland centre-back. David Brooks gave Wales the ideal leg-up before Williams doubled Wales’s advantage but Teemu Pukki struck before half-time for Finland. Continue reading...

Finland forward is flourishing at Minnesota in MLS but now has the Euro 2024 playoff on his mind Teemu Pukki is in no mood to deliver understatement. “It is a big thing, one of the biggest games in Finnish football history,” he says. The opponents? Wales. The prize? To move within a single game of a Euro 2024 finals appearance. Continue reading...