{"id":70278,"date":"2024-04-15T15:51:27","date_gmt":"2024-04-15T15:51:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/alonsos-leverkusen-storm-to-first-bundesliga-title"},"modified":"2024-04-15T16:36:59","modified_gmt":"2024-04-15T16:36:59","slug":"alonsos-leverkusen-storm-to-first-bundesliga-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/alonsos-leverkusen-storm-to-first-bundesliga-title","title":{"rendered":"Alonso\u2019s Leverkusen storm to first Bundesliga title"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Rwanda. <\/strong><\/span>Bayer Leverkusen won their first Bundesliga title and got there with five games to spare thanks to a 5-0 victory over Werder Bremen.<\/p>\n

Bayern Munich beat Cologne on Saturday to keep Leverkusen’s title celebrations on hold for at least a day.<\/p>\n

But there were scenes of jubilation for Xabi Alonso’s team when the final whistle blew at BayArena on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Victor Boniface’s 25th-minute penalty set Leverkusen on their way before Granit Xhaka and Florian Wirtz scored stunning goals in quick succession.<\/p>\n

Supporters stormed on to the pitch in mid-match when star man Wirtz added a fourth in the 82nd minute, and again when he completed a hat-trick soon afterwards.<\/p>\n

Leverkusen’s landmark achievement ends an era of dominance for Bayern, who had won the past 11 Bundesliga titles.<\/p>\n

Unbeaten in all competitions this season, Leverkusen remain on course for a remarkable treble in Alonso’s first full season in charge, with the German Cup and Europa League still in their sights.<\/p>\n

There has been a sense of inevitability about Leverkusen’s Bundesliga win for weeks now.<\/p>\n

It has been a question of ‘when’ rather than ‘if’ the club would get their hands on a first Meisterschale – the championship shield.<\/p>\n

There was an expectant atmosphere around the BayArena before kick-off as fans eagerly welcomed the Leverkusen team bus with confetti and flares.<\/p>\n

Werder keeper Michael Zetterer stopped premature celebrations when he prevented Piero Hincapie from tapping in Nathan Tella’s cross in the opening moments.<\/p>\n

But the home crowd erupted when Boniface slotted home from the spot after a video assistant referee check showed Julian Malatini impeding Jonas Hofmann in the penalty area.<\/p>\n

Werder came close to spoiling Leverkusen’s party just before the break, but Marvin Ducksch was unable to direct his glancing header towards goal.<\/p>\n

Xhaka’s superb 25-yard shot on the hour put Alonso’s side in firm control, before Wirtz one-upped the former Arsenal midfielder with his own long-range effort.<\/p>\n

Play resumed quickly after supporters returned to their seats following Wirtz’s second, but a sea of red and black shirts swarmed the pitch again when the 20-year-old swept home Leverkusen’s fifth, prompting the referee to blow the final whistle.<\/p>\n

Leverkusen were in the relegation zone when Alonso took charge in October 2022.<\/p>\n

Barely 18 months later, they are Bundesliga champions.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Rwanda<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Rwanda. Bayer Leverkusen won their first Bundesliga title and got there with five games to spare thanks to a 5-0 victory over Werder Bremen. Bayern Munich beat Cologne on Saturday to keep Leverkusen’s title celebrations on hold for at least a day. But there were scenes of jubilation for Xabi Alonso’s team when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":70277,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,18],"tags":[760,763,758],"class_list":["post-70278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-rwanda","tag-rwanda"],"yoast_head":"\nAlonso\u2019s Leverkusen storm to first Bundesliga title - Rwanda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Bayer Leverkusen won their first Bundesliga title and got there with five games to spare thanks to a 5-0 victory over We ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/alonsos-leverkusen-storm-to-first-bundesliga-title\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Alonso\u2019s Leverkusen storm to first Bundesliga title\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bayer Leverkusen won their first Bundesliga title and got there with five games to spare thanks to a 5-0 victory over We ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/alonsos-leverkusen-storm-to-first-bundesliga-title\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rwanda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-04-15T15:51:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-04-15T16:36:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2024\/04\/sm_1713185973.364022.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"655\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/alonsos-leverkusen-storm-to-first-bundesliga-title#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/alonsos-leverkusen-storm-to-first-bundesliga-title\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Alonso\u2019s Leverkusen storm to first Bundesliga title\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-04-15T15:51:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-04-15T16:36:59+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/alonsos-leverkusen-storm-to-first-bundesliga-title\"},\"wordCount\":406,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/alonsos-leverkusen-storm-to-first-bundesliga-title#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2024\/04\/sm_1713185973.364022.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Rwanda\",\"Rwanda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/alonsos-leverkusen-storm-to-first-bundesliga-title#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/alonsos-leverkusen-storm-to-first-bundesliga-title\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/alonsos-leverkusen-storm-to-first-bundesliga-title\",\"name\":\"Alonso\u2019s Leverkusen storm to first Bundesliga title - Rwanda\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/alonsos-leverkusen-storm-to-first-bundesliga-title#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/alonsos-leverkusen-storm-to-first-bundesliga-title#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2024\/04\/sm_1713185973.364022.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-04-15T15:51:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-04-15T16:36:59+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"Bayer Leverkusen won their first Bundesliga title and got there with five games to spare thanks to a 5-0 victory over We ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/alonsos-leverkusen-storm-to-first-bundesliga-title#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/alonsos-leverkusen-storm-to-first-bundesliga-title\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/alonsos-leverkusen-storm-to-first-bundesliga-title#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2024\/04\/sm_1713185973.364022.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2024\/04\/sm_1713185973.364022.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":655,\"caption\":\"Alonso\u2019s Leverkusen storm to first Bundesliga title\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/alonsos-leverkusen-storm-to-first-bundesliga-title#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Alonso\u2019s Leverkusen storm to first Bundesliga title\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/\",\"name\":\"Rwanda\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Alonso\u2019s Leverkusen storm to first Bundesliga title - Rwanda","description":"Bayer Leverkusen won their first Bundesliga title and got there with five games to spare thanks to a 5-0 victory over We ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/alonsos-leverkusen-storm-to-first-bundesliga-title","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Alonso\u2019s Leverkusen storm to first Bundesliga title","og_description":"Bayer Leverkusen won their first Bundesliga title and got there with five games to spare thanks to a 5-0 victory over We ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/alonsos-leverkusen-storm-to-first-bundesliga-title","og_site_name":"Rwanda","article_published_time":"2024-04-15T15:51:27+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-04-15T16:36:59+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":655,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2024\/04\/sm_1713185973.364022.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/alonsos-leverkusen-storm-to-first-bundesliga-title#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/alonsos-leverkusen-storm-to-first-bundesliga-title"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Alonso\u2019s Leverkusen storm to first Bundesliga title","datePublished":"2024-04-15T15:51:27+00:00","dateModified":"2024-04-15T16:36:59+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/alonsos-leverkusen-storm-to-first-bundesliga-title"},"wordCount":406,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/alonsos-leverkusen-storm-to-first-bundesliga-title#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2024\/04\/sm_1713185973.364022.jpg","keywords":["Africa Press","Africa Press-Rwanda","Rwanda"],"articleSection":["all news","Sport"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/alonsos-leverkusen-storm-to-first-bundesliga-title#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/alonsos-leverkusen-storm-to-first-bundesliga-title","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/alonsos-leverkusen-storm-to-first-bundesliga-title","name":"Alonso\u2019s Leverkusen storm to first Bundesliga title - Rwanda","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/alonsos-leverkusen-storm-to-first-bundesliga-title#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/alonsos-leverkusen-storm-to-first-bundesliga-title#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2024\/04\/sm_1713185973.364022.jpg","datePublished":"2024-04-15T15:51:27+00:00","dateModified":"2024-04-15T16:36:59+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"Bayer Leverkusen won their first Bundesliga title and got there with five games to spare thanks to a 5-0 victory over We ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/alonsos-leverkusen-storm-to-first-bundesliga-title#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/alonsos-leverkusen-storm-to-first-bundesliga-title"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/alonsos-leverkusen-storm-to-first-bundesliga-title#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2024\/04\/sm_1713185973.364022.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2024\/04\/sm_1713185973.364022.jpg","width":1000,"height":655,"caption":"Alonso\u2019s Leverkusen storm to first Bundesliga title"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/alonsos-leverkusen-storm-to-first-bundesliga-title#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Alonso\u2019s Leverkusen storm to first Bundesliga title"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/","name":"Rwanda","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}