Xabi Alonso sends warning to West Ham over Bayer Leverkusen's Bundesliga title celebrations

Bayer Leverkusen manager Xabi Alonso has dismissed any suggestions that their Bundesliga title celebrations will impact their performance against West Ham in the upcoming Europa League clash.

Despite clinching their first-ever Bundesliga title with a resounding 5-0 victory over Werder Bremen, Alonso insists his squad is now fully concentrated on preserving their 2-0 advantage in the second leg of their Europa League quarter-final tie.

David Moyes, the Hammers' manager, had expressed hope that Leverkusen's players might have overindulged following their triumph, but Alonso was quick to clarify: «A few of them, probably. But not too many. We had control.

»For sure it was a moment to enjoy it. On Sunday we knew we had a chance so we took one day, in case of winning, to enjoy it.

«But from Tuesday our mind has been focused on West Ham. Now it's the Europa League and we have a great chance to make a great season even better. The commitment, the way we've trained, give me reasons to believe we will play well tomorrow.»

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With significant challenges ahead, Alonso acknowledges West Ham's strengths but remains optimistic about his team's chances: «We have big challenges ahead. West Ham have good players, they have recent experience of beating Freiburg. We need to put in our best performance.

»I don't have any feeling that our mentality will be any different from the one that has given us this chance to reach the quarter-final."