Xabi Alonso seeks to get Bayer Leverkusen focused again after a rare Bundesliga loss
Xabi Alonso and Bayer Lev‐ erkusen have experienced almost everything soccer has to offer over the last year. Having to re‐ bound from a loss, not so much.
Leverkusen goes into Satur‐ day's game against Hoffenheim having lost its last league match 3‐2 to Leipzig. It was the first Bundesliga game Leverkusen had lost since May 2023.
Alonso said Friday he was try‐ ing to restore concentration and focus that seemed to be lacking in a game where Leverkusen had 27 shots but Leipzig's sudden, inci‐ sive counterattacks made the dif‐ ference.
"We need to have better control when we don't have the ball," the coach said Friday. "We have to be stable without the ball, we have to be aggressive, not too passive. I think we conceded chances too simply and that is a football topic but also a mental topic, too."
Leverkusen's unbeaten run last season was no ordinary streak. So often did Alonso's team score late goals to save a point or win a crucial game that it began to feel inevitable, even like part of their identity — like a Hollywood di‐ rector whose movies all feature improbable final‐act twists.
Leverkusen's unbeaten run in all competitions ended at 51 games when the team lost to Ata‐ lanta in May in the Europa League final. Its unbeaten record in German competition hit 15 months before the loss to Leipzig, including the only unbeaten Bun‐ desliga season by any team in history.
The recent international break means Alonso and his team have had two weeks to mull over the Leipzig loss ahead of the away game at Hoffenheim — and a Champions League visit to Feyenoord on Thursday — but there's been little face‐to‐face contact between Alonso and his many players on international duty.
"It's express preparation, ex‐ press conversation," he said. "It's not so many things but there are important things to improve. We had enough time to analyze and to show that and to discuss how we can do that better, so hope‐ fully we have a better, more com‐ plete performance."
Alonso had words of support for defender and vice‐captain Jonathan Tah, who was substi‐ tuted at halftime in Germany's 2‐ 2 draw with the Netherlands on Tuesday after struggling at times to deal with the Dutch forwards.
Tah is a "top player" who re‐ turned to the club with a positive attitude after the game, Alonso said.
Like Leipzig, Hoffenheim is an‐ other team that Leverkusen beat implausibly late last season.
Back on March 30, Hoffenheim was on course for a 1‐0 win that would have shocked European soccer. But then Robert Andrich scored in the 88th minute and Patrik Schick in the 91st, and Lev‐ erkusen won 2‐1. It was just an‐ other gravity‐defying feat in a season that was full of them.
Life after Mbappé is proving better than expected for French leader PSG
Kylian Mbappé's departure was expected to sidetrack Paris Saint‐ Germain this season.
How would a team long viewed as over‐reliant on the France su‐ perstar cope without him after his move to Real Madrid?
Who could score so freely for PSG when Mbappé averaged more than 40 goals per season over the past four campaigns and more than 250 in seven years at the club? And who would bail the team out of trouble with last‐ gasp winners?
Things have turned out rather well, so far, and the widely antic‐ ipated post‐Mbappé headache has not materialised.
Far from it.
PSG is the only team to have won its first three games in the French league and has scored an impressive 13 goals.
No longer being so reliant on Mbappé seems to have produced an early side effect, whereby the goals are being shared around and teamwork has improved in coach Luis Enrique's side.
Bradley Barcola has led the way with four goals, adding a finish‐ ing touch to his skilful dribbling down the left, while his France teammate Randal Kolo Muani and South Korea forward Lee Kang‐in have netted twice each.
France right winger Ousmane Dembélé has chipped in with a goal and two assists for the de‐ fending champion, while new signing João Neves leads the league with three assists.
Kolo Muani and Dembélé con‐ tinued their form with France, each scoring on Monday in a 2‐0 win against Belgium in the Na‐ tions League.
Behind the forwards, Portugal's Vitinha and France's Warren Zaïre‐Emery form a solid midfield pairing along with the 19‐year‐ old Neves, an offseason signing from Portuguese side Benfica.
For now, it seems like Mbappé's absence is being felt more keenly off the field than on it.
On Wednesday, he rejected a mediation offer by the French soccer league's legal commission in his dispute with PSG over wages and bonuses.
PSG officials and Mbappé's rep‐ resentatives met in Paris after Mbappé asked the commission to get involved. Mbappé, who joined Madrid on a free transfer, says the club owes him 55 million euros ($60 million). PSG said it was pleased with how the commission hearing went.
While PSG's power struggle with its ex‐striker continues, PSG's current crop of forwards look for more goals when the team hosts Brest on Saturday be‐ fore facing Spanish side Girona on Wednesday when the Champions League starts.
Mbappé is expected to make his European debut for Madrid the previous night, at home to
Stuttgart.
He never won Europe's most prestigious club prize with PSG, but most observers would argue he has a far better chance of doing so with record 15‐time champion Madrid.
At some point this season, their paths may cross again on the field.