Leverkusen are unbeaten at halfway. Could they really have an invincible season? – The Athletic

Bayer Leverkusen won German football’s first title of the season on Saturday: they are Herbstmeister (autumn champions), top of the table midway through the season. The accolade is weirdly named and purely unofficial, but it does carry symbolic meaning as a good omen. A team that can do half the job are widely seen as capable of going all the way, not least because in two-thirds of all seasons since the Bundesliga’s foundation in 1963, they actually did.

Leverkusen are a bit of an outlier in that respect. On the two occasions they were top of the league after the Hinrunde (first half of the season), in the famous triple-runners-up year of 2002, and in 2009 they couldn’t hold on. Their chronic lack of staying power has become part of Bundesliga mythology, giving birth to the dreaded “Neverkusen” and “Vizekusen” monikers.

Historic precedent explains why none of the club officials wanted to make too much of a fuss over the Herbstmeisterschaft on Saturday. “We don’t think about it at all,” sporting director Simon Rolfes insisted. But taking all three points in Augsburg thanks to a 94th-minute goal by Argentinian midfielder Exequiel Palacios was in itself a massive deal, as evidenced by the wild celebrations after the final whistle. “You experience such moments very rarely, maybe only at home,” midfielder Jonas Hofmann said with a cheeky smile. “I’ve still got palpitations.”

Manager Xabi Alonso reacted to the late winner with a mighty leap onto the pitch and plenty of fist-shaking. Afterwards, he was calmness personified again, talking about “enjoying (the win) a little bit” before switching attention to the trip to RB Leipzig next Saturday.

Last-minute triumphs are “always more fun than a 3-0 or 4-0”, keeper Lukas Hradecky said, but this one felt especially precious. Leverkusen had travelled to bitterly cold Bavaria without key players Amine Adli, Odilon Kossounou and Edmond Tapsoba (all at AFCON), as well as injured forward Victor Boniface. Florian Wirtz was not quite fit to start and Alonso took the risk of resting defender Jonathan Tah (under threat from suspension). The away team dominated possession on a bumpy pitch yet could not find a way past goalkeeper Finn Dahmen. The match looked destined to end in a disappointing draw, casting aspersions on Leverkusen’s resilience, but World Cup winner Palacios’s goal instantly turned the narrative upside down. “The morale, commitment and mentality of this team are a wonder,” Hofmann said.

Palacios’s strike might yet play a pivotal role in the final reckoning and it certainly strengthens the belief that the club’s stereotypical habit of stumbling near the finish has little effect on this particular team. With each passing week, Alonso’s serial-winner disposition seems to rub off on them a little more. Their incredible tally of 45 points from 17 matches has only been outdone twice, by Pep Guardiola’s Bayern Munich, in 2013-14 and in 2015-16, with Alonso in midfield.

Speaking to Sky Germany on Sunday, former forward Dimitar Berbatov suggested Leverkusen might go one better and achieve a feat that even eluded Guardiola in Munich. “They’re the best team in Europe right now,” the 42-year-old said. “I think they can go the entire season unbeaten.”

Can they? Bayern certainly could have done it after winning the league as early as March in the Catalan’s first campaign in Bavaria, but Guardiola rotated heavily in the final weeks with an eye on the Champions League semi-final against Real Madrid (4-1 to the Spaniards on aggregate). Bayern lost 1-0 at Augsburg and 3-0 at home to Borussia Dortmund.

One cannot see Alonso making the same mistake, but Leverkusen’s ambitions might work against them, as they did against Bayern 10 years ago. As favourites to win the DFB-Pokal and firm contenders in the Europa League, they are likely to play so many games that legs and minds will be tested to their limits, starting with the trip to Leipzig this week.

Below is every instance of a team going a season unbeaten in one of Europe’s ‘big five’ leagues:

In days gone by, Bayern supremo Uli Hoeness would have dabbled in a timely bit of psychological warfare now, questioning the rival Herbstmeister’s credentials. The 1974 World Cup winner once memorably observed that “Santa Claus has never been the Easter Bunny” in relation to Werder Bremen topping the table in December. On that occasion, in 2006-07, Hoeness would be proven right, albeit not in the way he had envisaged: Stuttgart won the championship that season.

Don’t expect similar mind games from Bayern sporting director Christoph Freund or his incoming boss, Max Eberl. Times and characters have changed. Bayern take encouragement from their superior starting XI and they have their squad numbers boosted by the arrival of Eric Dier and, potentially, Paris Saint-Germain’s Nordi Mukiele.

If Leverkusen’s scary consistency continues to leave Bayern with little room for error, they might have to break their own 91-point league record from 2012-13 to keep the Vizekusen cliche alive. Unlikely? Yes. Impossible? No. Taking into account their 41 points from 16 games — they have a home match against Union Berlin in hand — and the fact they can still perform much better in all aspects, Alonso could well push them to their best-ever season, too.

(Top photo: Ina Fassbender/AFP via Getty Images)