Alonso ‘bitter’ as Bayer Leverkusen’s unbeaten Bundesliga run ends

Bayer Leverkusen coach Xabi Alonso said he had a “bitter” feeling after the German Bundesliga champions’ impressive unbeaten run ended with a 3-2 defeat to RB Leipzig on Saturday.

Under Alonso, Leverkusen have made a specialty of crucial late goals. It looked like that would happen again in the 86th minute when the referee went to review a potential penalty after Leipzig’s Castello Lukeba and Leverkusen’s Patrik Schick made contact.

The referee disallowed the penalty and Leverkusen lost to a German opponent for the first time since May 2023, after going 35 games unbeaten in the Bundesliga, including the entire 2023-24 championship season.

“It’s tough, it’s bitter,” Alonso told German broadcaster Sky. “I don’t think we deserved to lose today.”

The defeat means Leverkusen move just one result away from equalling Hamburg’s 36-game unbeaten run from 1982-83, the second-longest run in the Bundesliga after Bayern Munich’s 53-game unbeaten run under Pep Guardiola.

Leipzig came back from 2-0 down by capitalizing on relatively few chances, mostly on the counter, to secure a comeback victory, their three goals coming from 10 shots to Leverkusen’s 27.

Leverkusen scored twice in the six-minute opening half, the first when Jeremie Frimpong intercepted a loose pass, sent defender El Chadaille Bitshiabu the wrong way and slotted past goalkeeper Péter Gulácsi. Alex Grimaldo then completed a team effort that saw new signing Martin Terrier pull Gulacsi out of position.

Still, the momentum was Leipzig’s at half-time after Kevin Kampl’s stoppage-time header, and Openda turned the game around with two precise finishes, levelling the score with a shot from a tricky angle near the touchline and making it 3-2 with a curling effort from outside the penalty area.

“We will take many positives and negatives from this race,” Alonso told a news conference.

“We played a good game in the first half. We were happy with that and wanted to build on that in the second half. (But) we had no control in the second half and gave Leipzig too much space. We didn’t do well at the back.

“We will learn from these mistakes. It is not good to let an opponent come back after being 2-0 up. But it is a process, we are still early in the season.”

Alonso called for more unity in defence as his team look to retain the title this season.

“We were in a good flow after we took a 2-0 lead, but after that we have to be ready to defend,” Alonso added.

“We want to attack together, but we also have to defend together. We will work through the match after the international break.”

Leverkusen were the better team and could have taken a bigger lead before half-time thanks to early chances for Edmond Tapsoba and Piero Hincapié, the latter heading the ball onto the crossbar.

“Of course it hurts that we didn’t take our chances today,” said Frimpong.

“In the end we lost because Leipzig made better use of their chances. It was a good game, but we have to score. We will work on that in training.”

Leverkusen will play another match against Hoffenheim on September 14, before travelling to Feyenoord five days later for the Champions League season opener.

Information from The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.