Even if Xabi Alonso is no longer at Bayer Leverkusen strong traces of him remain, both at the club and in the Bundesliga. Take the match-up between Die Werkself and Bayern Munich, another of his former clubs. In the last few years it is a meeting that has nudged Der Klassiker gently aside in terms of excellence and what it has meant. Like so many historical domestic faceoffs with Bayern and AN Other it is likely transient but even if Saturday’s latest edition may not have had quite the direct rivalry that recent meetings have, many of the feelings of intensity and adrenaline were still there. It was the perfect pep for the run-in.
There has been another moment in the recent past in which a stalemate in this showpiece has pleased neither team; the goalless draw in the corresponding fixture last season springs to mind, where Bayern were neutered as was/is rarely possible and only got away with a point after a mindboggling miss from Florian Wirtz at the death. If the two clubs’ realistic aims have gone in opposite directions since, there was still plenty of chuntering on both sides at the end.
From Bayern, it was on the subject of the officiating after finishing with nine men. There could be no argument with Nicolás Jackson’s first-half red card, even if it took a VAR check to upgrade it, for a crunching studs-up challenge on Martin Terrier. When Uli Hoeness later exploded in calling referee Christian Dingert and his assistants’ performance “the worst by a refereeing team I have ever witnessed in a Bundesliga match” it felt like a later red for Luis Díaz – a second yellow card given for simulation – had pushed Bayern’s frustration over the edge.
Close calls went against the champions, certainly, but there was little argument against the disallowing of potential goals by the returning (to his old club) Jonathan Tah and (from injury) Harry Kane, both for handball. Díaz’s dismissal was far harsher, however. The Colombian winger had already brought the 10 men back into the match, converting a 23rd Michael Olise assist of the season, and he surged menacingly towards goal again as the clock ticked down, tumbling after contact from goalkeeper Janis Blaswich.
Dingert adjudged Díaz had provoked the contact, so showed the yellow, then the red. It was, he admitted on reflection to Sky, “very harsh,” and a decision that would be overturned when the rule on examining second yellow cards changes from summer; not a penalty, neither a dive. As it was, Bayern ended up holding on and were saved by a tight VAR call themselves, ruling out a deflected Jonas Hofmann strike for a close-run offside before third-choice goalkeeper Sven Ulreich brilliantly denied Ibrahim Maza a winner.
If anyone had a right to be irritable it was Bayern’s players after a long afternoon and a long week. With Alphonso Davies, Jamal Musiala and Jonas Urbig all ruled out after the majestic win in Atalanta, it had been perturbing to see Dayot Upamecano taking the goal-kicks for Ulreich. Sure enough Ulreich has been ruled out for the return with Atalanta this week, with 16-year-old Leonard Prescott in line for a debut with Bayern’s first three goalkeepers ruled out. The international break can’t come quickly enough.
Leverkusen’s frustrations also reflected a long week of effort. Home games with Arsenal and Bayern couldn’t have gone much better in terms of effort, application and (at least partly) execution. Yet, even if they avoided defeat twice, Kasper Hjulmand’s team lost the lead in both games and face the growing possibility of imminent eviction from this season’s Champions League and no re-entry to it next season. “Unfortunately,” lamented Hjulmand, “we have mixed feelings again. We played very well, with structure, passion and energy.”
That much is true. It also made you wonder where those three elements have been for most of 2026 so far, leaving Leverkusen so compromised. Even with a host of absentees – and with mainstay Alejandro Grimaldo banned here – they have pushed perhaps the two best teams in Europe to the brink of defeat in the space of four days. Their opening here was a whirlwind, with Aleix García thrashing in an opening after teenager Montrell Culbreath mugged Díaz on the Leverkusen right. It felt like the Alonso era in those dizzy early moments.
It is still more chastening, then, that points jettisoned against Mainz, Union Berlin and Borussia Mönchengladbach could come back to bite them. This was a reminder that the Bundesliga needs Leverkusen at their best more matches like this, “an occasion with everything football has to offer,” as Max Eberl put it. Alonso raised our expectations, and this recalled exactly how and why.
Quick Guide
Bundesliga results
Show
Mönchengladbach 2-0 St Pauli, Bayer Leverkusen 1-1 Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund 2-0 Augsburg, Eintracht Frankfurt 1-0 Heidenheim, Hoffenheim 1-1 Wolfsburg, Hamburg 1-1 Cologne, Werder Bremen 0-2 Mainz, Freiburg 0-1 Union Berlin, Stuttgart 1-0 Leipzig
Talking points
Wherever Leverkusen are going next, it won’t be with Julian Brandt. CEO Fernando Carro had teased the possibility of the soon-to-be-out-of-contract Borussia Dortmund star returning to the Bay Arena “if Simon wants him,” but sporting director Rolfes shut the door quite firmly on the idea on Sport1’s Doppelpass on Sunday; he said he was “sceptical” about bringing back ex-players and underlined the rapid development of Maza as making Brandt superfluous.
Even outside Brandt the future is happening now at Dortmund, and not just because 18-year-old Luca Reggiani scored his first goal on his second Bundesliga star – to much joy – in the 2-0 win over Augsburg. This week’s contract extension for Felix Nmecha (to 2030) means the looming financial shortfall from earlier-than-expected Champions League elimination will most likely be filled by the sale of Karim Adeyemi, or Serhou Guirassy, or both, neither of which would seriously alter BVB’s long-term plans.
Below them the race for the Champions League spots is really hotting up. Stuttgart’s win over Leipzig in Sunday’s late game, thanks to a typically clinical Deniz Undav finish, took them three clear of their visitors in fourth place (with it still very much up in the air as to whether fifth, where Leipzig are, will be enough for a Champions League spot) and five clear of Leverkusen. It also took Sebastian Hoeness and his team level on points with Hoffenheim, who dropped points for the third game in four, this time needing a Grischa Prömel equaliser in the last 10 minutes to draw at home to Wolfsburg. “We have to be careful not to fall into a frustration trap and be too self-critical,” said their coach Christian Ilzer. “We’ll gladly take the point – we’ve lost games like this before.”
Speaking of Wolfsburg, things are really tightening up at the bottom. Despite losing that late leveller in Sinsheim Dieter Hecking and company got closer to the relegation playoff spot, with the gap now three points after crucial results elsewhere with Borussia Mönchengladbach beating St Pauli (with the latter in that 16th spot just above Wolfsburg) and Mainz winning fairly comfortably at Werder Bremen, ending their four-game winless streak and putting the skids under Bremen’s recent revival. Saïd El Mala’s back-post header earned Köln a point at Hamburg but they are properly in the mix as well, with four points spanning 12th-placed Gladbach and St Pauli in 16th, with Mainz, Bremen and Köln in between.
Hamburg, two points ahead of Gladbach and looking good if not mathematically home and hosed, had been given the lead by Fábio Vieira’s exceptional lob, and talk after the game turned to the Arsenal loanee’s future. “My self-confidence has come back,” he enthused but with a €20m purchase option way out of HSV’s range, serious negotiation would be necessary to make it longer-term.
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