Wirtz hat-trick guides Bayer Leverkusen to their first-ever Bundesliga title

Bayer Leverkusen beat Werder Bremen and remain undefeated to crown a season for the history books

What Borussia Dortmund and RB Leipzig failed to do in their day — put an end to Bayern Munich's tyranny — Bayer Leverkusen have achieved.

In need of a victory over Werder Bremen to win the first Bundesliga title in its history, Leverkusen did it, and in stunning fashion (5-0), thanks to goals from Boniface (25' penalty), Xhaka (60') and Wirtz (68', 83' and 90'). And they've done it with five matches left to play.

Goodbye 'Neverkusen'. Hello 'Meisterkusen'. A 'fairy tale' that began with the arrival of Fernando Carro as president in 2018 and took on a new dimension with the arrival of Xabi Alonso on the bench: he took the near-bottom team, second to last, in October 2022 and, just a year and a half later, has been 'crowned' king of Germany.

In his debut as a coach, the former Real Sociedad, Liverpool, Real Madrid and Bayern player has designed an unbeatable team. Literally. No matter who plays. Against Werder Bremen he rested several starters (Grimaldo, Wirtz, Frimpong, Palacios) thinking of defending in London the 2-0 win in the first leg of the Europa League quarterfinals against West Ham… and the result was the same as (almost) always: victory.

Leverkusen started off a bit nervous and imprecise. The atmosphere at the BayArena — there were 30,000 spectators, but 100,000 tickets could have been sold — was imposing. You know: it's not every day you can win the league.

Even so, the first clear-cut chance was only eight minutes away. Tella crossed from the right and Hincapie, coming in with everything he had, slammed intoZetterer's body.

A deflected shot by Xhaka was barely worthy of note before, in the 22nd minute, the play that