The celebrations started early for Leverkusen fans, who decided to honour head coach Xabi Alonso is a truly special way.
Check it out!
What's the story?
It was a Sunday to cherish for Bayer Leverkusen fans as Xabi Alonso's men clinched the club's first ever Bundesliga crown after a 5-0 win over Werder Bremen at the BayArena.
Alonso's remarkable unbeaten run has seen them secure the league with five games to go, prompting the fans to try and immortalise the Spaniard by renaming a road.
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Let's take a closer look...
Xabi Alonso street
Bayer Leverkusen fans have dubbed the road leading to BayArena as Xabi Alonso Street, giving it a new moniker before their teams secured the Bundesliga title on Sunday.
It was a sea of red outside the stadium as thousands of Leverkusen fans eagerly waited to greet the bus carrying Xabi Alonso and his troops bus prior to their 5-0 rout over Bremen.
According to European reports, an estimated 10 000 fans lined up on Bismarck Street to greet the team's bus, which fans renamed 'Xabi Alonso Street' for the occasion.
For now at least, it's just a case of a fan placing a sticker over the sign on what is still officially "Bismarckstrasse", but who says the road name can't still be named after Alonso, especially if he can finish the league season unbeaten, as well as win the DFB Pokal and the Europa League.
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Take a look:
Leverkusen fans have renamed a street to honor Xabi Alonso. pic.twitter.com/6OgwsxR5G8
— Plaantik (@Plaantik) April 13, 2024
Goals came curtesy Super Eagles striker Victor Boniface, Ex-Arsenal captain Granit Xhaka and a hat-trick from the silky German attacking midfielder, Florian Wirtz, with the fans storming the pitch when Wirtz sealed his treble.
This was Leverkusen's 25th win in 29 games this season, having drawn four games and sitting sixteen points behind second-place Bayern Munich. Leverkusen's unbeaten run currently sits at 43, matching Juventus's European record for the longest unbeaten streak of 43 games across 2011 and 2012.
The club's only previous major honours were the 1987/88 UEFA Cup and 1992/93 DFB Cup and they've now snapped Bayern's 11-season Bundesliga title streak, with a chance of setting a new record by going unbeaten in a German top flight season.
As mentioned by the Bundesliga website, they are five-time Bundesliga, three-time DFB Cup and one-time UEFA Champions League runners-up, giving rise to them the unwanted nickname "Neverkusen" and with the reputation of being perennial bridesmaids of German football, all of which has been changed by Alonso's class of 2023/24.
Here's a look at the some of the celebrations from Leverkusen's players and fans:
WE LOVE YOU XABI! ??#Winnerkusen #DeutscherMeisterSVB @XabiAlonso pic.twitter.com/haCil7N4fH
— Bayer 04 Leverkusen (@bayer04_en) April 14, 2024
SCENES! ??
— Bayer 04 Leverkusen (@bayer04_en) April 14, 2024
The moment we become CHAMPIONS! ??#Winnerkusen #DeutscherMeisterSVB
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