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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial | |
ARTICLE VIEW: | |
/ | |
German club Bayer Leverkusen equals 59-year-old record as unbeaten | |
season continues | |
By Ben Church, CNN | |
Updated: | |
6:07 AM EDT, Mon May 6, 2024 | |
Source: CNN | |
German team extended its miraculous unbeaten run to 48 games on Sunday | |
after thrashing Eintracht Frankfurt 5-1 in the . | |
Unlike many matches this season, Leverkusen never trailed and had five | |
different scorers – Granit Xhaka, Patrik Schick, Exequiel Palacios, | |
Jeremie Frimpong and Victor Okoh Boniface – in the blowout victory at | |
Frankfurt’s Deutsche Bank Park. | |
The win means that Leverkusen has now equaled the record for the | |
longest unbeaten run across all top-level matches since the | |
introduction of European competition, . | |
The club shares the mark with Portuguese giant Benfica, which set the | |
record between 1963-65. | |
Leverkusen will have the chance to break the record on Thursday when it | |
plays Roma in the second leg of its Europa League semifinal. | |
The all-time mark of 62 games unbeaten was set by Scottish club Celtic | |
from 1915-1917, however, those matches were all in the domestic league. | |
“Our level, our consistency throughout the season is great. But we | |
are always moving forward. We are always concentrating on the work and | |
improving,” Leverkusen manager Xabi Alonso told reporters after | |
Sunday’s match. | |
Something special has happened at Bayer Leverkusen this season. | |
Die Schwarzroten have already wrapped up the Bundesliga title – the | |
first in the club’s 119-year history, ending Bayern Munich’s | |
11-year dominance in the process – reached the German Cup final and | |
hold a 2-0 advantage going into their Europa League semifinal second | |
leg. | |
Doing all that without losing a single game has been one of the | |
standout stories in world soccer this season. | |
Credit goes to manager Alonso for instilling a never-say-die attitude | |
into his players – the squad has become renowned for its propensity | |
to when the odds seem stacked against it. | |
But the former Spain international is not content with his team’s | |
achievements to date and wants to continue the incredible run until the | |
end of the season. | |
Leverkusen still has two league games against ninth-ranked Augsburg and | |
14th-ranked VfL Bochum, the German Cup final against second division FC | |
Kaiserslautern, the semifinal second leg against Roma and a potential | |
Europa League final to come. | |
“It will be the perfect run. We will certainly try,” Alonso said. | |
“We still have games to play to achieve our big goals in all | |
competitions. The next game is important for us, the second leg of the | |
Europa League semifinal: a chance to reach the final. | |
“In football, it’s sometimes difficult to stop. You have to prepare | |
for the next game. And the next game is a big game for us. Hopefully, | |
we have the chance to be in a European final again.” | |
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