Captain Lukas Hradecky spoke of a “great adventure” with sparkling eyes. Six months earlier, Bayer Leverkusen had been on the bottom from a sporting point of view, but now the Werkself under coach Xabi Alonso are the Bundesliga’s last hope in Europe. And sports director Simon Rolfes is hoping for the support of all clubs and fans on the way to the Europa League title. “Nobody has to thank us. But it would be nice if everyone supported us,” said the ex-national player after reaching the semi-finals of the Europa League: “We hope that everyone at the national level is behind us so that we can win the next round too.”
The way Bayer performed 4-1 against the physically and mentally strong outsider and Union Berlin fright Union Saint-Gilloise gives hope. After Eintracht Frankfurt last year, a German club can once again triumph in the competition. When asked how real the dream of the title was, defender Jonathan Tah, who had been outstanding for weeks, answered succinctly and confidently: “I don’t think it’s more real than it is right now.”
A big chunk awaits in the semi-finals with AS Roma and coach José Mourinho, but by now Leverkusen are dreaming of the final on May 31 in Budapest. “The goal is very clear, to reach the final,” Rolfes clarified. And Hradecky, at 33 one of the experienced and already a participant in the European Championship and winner of the DFB Cup with Frankfurt, answered the question of where he would rate the success of his career so far with a laugh: “Ask me again in Budapest.”
First of all, the first semi-final entry in Europe for 21 years was extensively celebrated on the three-hour bus ride home. “Xabi is very relaxed there. He used to be a player,” Hradecky said when asked about the permitted beer consumption: “Everyone has to know how much they can drink. But five are certainly allowed.”
Alonso has instilled the attitude for this competition in his pros.
Alonso, who took over the team in October as the penultimate player in the Bundesliga and has not lost twelve competitive games in a row, has not yet spoken about the final. “Now we still have a journey ahead of us. We’ll see where it takes us,” he said: “But this chance is great.” Curious: Alonso, world champion as a player, twice European champion and twice Champions League winner, not only never won the Europa League as a professional. He’s never even played a single game there.
But he has instilled the attitude for this competition in his pros. And almost all players made better. Like Mitchell Bakker, who was the outstanding player on Thursday. “I don’t know how many lungs the man has,” said Hradecky, “but definitely three or four.”
Now we still have a journey ahead of us. This chance is great
Bayer coach Xabi Alonso
The goalkeeper also thought of Alonso’s predecessor, Gerardo Seoane, as “I’m still sorry that Gerardo had to go. But I said to Jona earlier: Rewind six months to where we were and how the team has developed.” That is also thanks to Alonso: “It’s not just the coach. But Xabi did a very good job.”
In the semi-finals there is now a duel with Mourinho, one of his teachers during Alonso’s playing time at Real Madrid. And for DFB sports director Rudi Völler, who was sports director at Bayer until last summer and still sits in the stands at almost every game, it will be a special duel. Since his five years with Roma, Völler has described himself as “half Roman”.
In any case, the Belgians were very impressed by the Leverkusen team. “That was the highest level,” enthused Captain Teddy Teuma. The Bundesliga club was “too precise, too fast and too strong”, wrote “La Derniere Heure”. And the newspaper “Le Soir” stated: “Union leaves Europe with a slap in the face.” Bayer’s third title in the club’s history after the UEFA Cup triumph in 1988 and the DFB Cup victory in 1993 is possible.
