Bayer Leverkusen coach Xabi Alonso said he had a “bitter” feeling after the German champions saw their impressive unbeaten run in the Bundesliga end with a 3-2 defeat to RB Leipzig on Saturday.
Under Alonso, Leverkusen have specialised in scoring decisive goals in the final minutes. It looked like that could happen again when the referee reviewed a potential penalty in the 86th minute after Leipzig's Castello Lukeba and Leverkusen's Patrik Schick collided.
The referee decided not to take the penalty and Leverkusen lost to German opposition for the first time since May 2023, after 35 Bundesliga games unbeaten, including the entire 2023-24 title-winning season.
“It's tough, it's bitter,” Alonso told German broadcaster Sky. “I don't think we deserved to lose today.”
The defeat left Leverkusen one result away from equalling Hamburg's 1982-83 unbeaten run of 36 games, the second-longest in the Bundesliga after Bayern Munich's record 53 under Pep Guardiola.
Leipzig overcame a 2-0 deficit by taking advantage of relatively few chances, usually on the counterattack, to seal a comeback. All three of their goals came from 10 shots to Leverkusen's 27.
Leverkusen scored twice in six first-half minutes. First, Jeremie Frimpong intercepted a loose pass, deflected past defender El Chadaille Bitshiabu and beat goalkeeper Péter Gulácsi. Then Alex Grimaldo finished off a team move in which new signing Martin Terrier took Gulacsi out of position.
However, Leipzig went into the break thanks to Kevin Kampl's header in added time and Openda turned the game around with two precise finishes. He levelled the score with a shot from a tight angle close to the touchline and made it 3-2 with a curling shot from outside the area.
“We will learn a lot of positive and negative things from this game,” Alonso said at a press conference.
“We played a good game in the first half. We were happy with that and we wanted to continue like that in the second.” [But] In the second half we did not control the game and we gave Leipzig too much space. We did not do well in defence.
“We will learn from these mistakes. It is not good to let an opponent come back after winning 2-0. But it is a process, we are still at the beginning of the season.”
Alonso called for more unity in defence so that his team can retain its title this season.
“We've come into this game in good form after going 2-0 up, but then we have to be ready to defend,” added Alonso.
“We want to attack together, but we also have to defend together. We will work on the game after the international break.”
Leverkusen were the better side and could have taken a bigger lead before the break with early chances from Edmond Tapsoba and Piero Hincapié, the latter heading against the bar.
“Of course it hurts because we didn't take advantage of our opportunities today,” Frimpong said.
“In the end we lost because Leipzig made better use of their chances. It was a good game, but we have to score goals. We will continue to work on that in training.”
Leverkusen's next game is against Hoffenheim on 14 September, before they travel to Feyenoord for their Champions League opener five days later.
Information from The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
