It no longer depends on FC Bayern
This is how Bayer Leverkusen becomes German champions the fastest
April 7, 2024, 3:26 p.m
The Bundesliga has been waiting for this for eleven years, and it could happen next Saturday: the end of FC Bayern’s title dominance. Bayer Leverkusen is about to win its first championship in club history. The scenarios at a glance.
There are now 16 points behind, and yet: FC Bayern still has a theoretical chance of winning the title in the German Bundesliga. Even if after the 2:3 disgrace against newly promoted Heidenheim, no one on Säbener Straße was still seriously thinking about the championship trophy. After all, Bayer Leverkusen, who currently seem so overpowering, sits at the top of the table.
The Munich team’s chances are therefore in the tenth range anyway. There are still six games left, so 18 points are still up for grabs. But for Bayern to win the title, something presumably impossible would have to happen: Leverkusen would have to lose all six games. And that after the Werkself have now gone 41 competitive games without defeat – a record in German club football. Munich, on the other hand, lost as often as they won in the second half of the season: five times each.
This makes a special scenario inevitable: Bayer 04 Leverkusen is finally breaking through its trauma. 24 years after the Werkself lost the championship trophy at SpVgg Unterhaching on the last match day in May 2000, Vizekusen, also known as “Neverkusen” in English, could finally become “Titlekusen”. Xabi Alonso’s team set the course on Saturday with a 1-0 win in the Alte Försterei against Union Berlin.
However, it doesn’t depend on FC Bayern; VfB Stuttgart can also jump to first place mathematically. Because in the shadow of the faltering Bavarian giant, coach Sebastian Hoeneß’s team is creeping up. Thanks to the 1-0 win on Saturday evening in Dortmund, VfB is level on points with FC Bayern in third place and only has a worse goal difference.
And so it could happen next weekend.
Bayer Leverkusen will be champions on matchday 29 if…
… on Saturday FC Bayern (against 1. FC Köln) and VfB Stuttgart (against Eintracht Frankfurt) lose their home games.
… Bayern and Stuttgart will play a maximum draw on Saturday and Leverkusen will get a point on Sunday (against Werder Bremen).
… achieve a home win against Werder Bremen on Sunday. Then it doesn’t even matter what FCB and VfB do the day before.