Bundesliga: Leverkusen beats Gladbach and continues as before

Another extremely late goal has saved champions Bayer Leverkusen’s perfect start to the new season. National player Florian Wirtz scored on Friday evening deep into injury time (90th+11) to make it 3-2 (2-0) at Borussia Mönchengladbach. It remains the same: Coach Xabi Alonso’s team is simply unbeatable in the Bundesliga. Wirtz converted the follow-up shot after a penalty kick that had initially been saved by Gladbach goalkeeper Jonas Omlin.

Granit Xhaka (12th) and Wirtz (38th) had initially put Leverkusen 2-0 ahead. After goals from Nico Elvedi (59th) and Tim Kleindienst (85th), it seemed that the double winners would not win. But then Bayer managed to score a decisive goal in the closing stages in front of 54,042 spectators – as they did so often last season.

Leverkusen are now undefeated in 35 Bundesliga matches in a row, and in all national competitions in 42. For Gladbach, who started the new season with confidence, it was a first setback. The game had to be stopped for about five minutes after the break because of some smoke bombs.

Bayer starts Bundesliga season without any new signings in the starting eleven

The past is over, Bayer coach Xabi Alonso stressed on Thursday. On match day, he presented his championship team without any new signings and again with Lukas Hradecky and the two ex-Gladbach players Xhaka and Jonas Hofmann. National player Jonathan Tah was also on the pitch and acted as defensive leader. It is extremely doubtful whether his move to FC Bayern Munich will still happen. The three new signings Martin Terrier, Aleix Garcia and Jeanuel Belocian all remained on the bench.

Gladbach, whose supporters celebrated the start of the season with a fan march in white from the city center to the stadium, just like two years ago, did without their midfielder Manu Koné, who may still be moving during this transfer window. Borussia’s head coach Gerardo Seoane, Alonso’s predecessor in Leverkusen, named two new players in the starting eleven: Kevin Stöger and Tim Kleindienst.

Restrained celebration after Xhaka’s dream goal

In the match, which was very intense from the start, the guests showed the more mature style of play, as expected, and dominated the game. However, the early 1-0 lead by Xhaka came about more by chance when the Swiss player scored with a direct shot from almost 20 meters into the corner of the goal after preparatory work by Jeremie Frimpong. The 31-year-old, who played for Borussia for four years, was only cautiously happy after his dream goal. Six minutes later, the Gladbach goal post rattled loudly when Victor Boniface only hit the crossbar on a counterattack.

The hosts then became a little bolder and had their first good goal opportunity through Kleindienst, but the second goal was conceded in the counterattack, again initiated by Frimpong and finished with a left-footed shot into the near corner by national player Wirtz. A goal by Kleindienst was subsequently disallowed after a video review.

But Gladbach did come back – first with a goal by Elvedi, who scored to make it 1:2 after a header from Ko Itakura, thus making the game more open. Kleindienst then made the Borussia fans cheer again. An exciting final phase began with an extremely long period of stoppage time – and a happy ending for Bayer.