Bayer Leverkusen went from a club defined by famous near-misses to the first team in Bundesliga history to complete an entire league season without defeat.
Bayer Leverkusen won the first Bundesliga title in club history in 2023/24 and did it without losing a single league match. Xabi Alonso’s side finished with 90 points from 28 wins and six draws, scoring 89 goals and conceding only 24. Across 61 seasons and more than a thousand individual Bundesliga campaigns, no team had previously completed all 34 matches unbeaten.
That alone would have made Bayer Leverkusen 2023/24 historic. But the numbers tell only half the story. This was Bayer Leverkusen, the club whose previous brushes with greatness had produced a cruel nickname: Neverkusen. They had finished Bundesliga runners-up five times without ever lifting the Meisterschale. In 2001/02, they had come within touching distance of three trophies and finished with none.
Then Alonso’s team changed the vocabulary around the club. They won the league with five matches to spare, completed the Bundesliga season undefeated, reached 51 consecutive games without defeat in all competitions, and recovered from the disappointment of losing the UEFA Europa League final by winning the DFB-Pokal three days later. The fairy tale was not that Leverkusen briefly escaped their past. It was that, for one extraordinary season, they rewrote it.
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Leverkusen became the first club to complete all 34 matches of a Bundesliga season unbeaten.
The Weight of Bayer Leverkusen’s Near-Misses
To understand why Leverkusen’s first Bundesliga title mattered so much, the story has to begin with the trophies they did not win.
The club had spent decades close enough to German football’s summit to know exactly what it felt like to fall short. Leverkusen had finished second in the Bundesliga in 1996/97, 1998/99, 1999/2000, 2001/02 and 2010/11. The most painful of those seasons became part of European football folklore.
In 2001/02, Leverkusen challenged for the Bundesliga, DFB-Pokal and UEFA Champions League. They ended the campaign as runners-up in all three. Real Madrid beat them in the Champions League final in Glasgow, remembered above all for Zinedine Zidane’s spectacular winning volley. A team featuring Michael Ballack, Lúcio, Bernd Schneider and Oliver Neuville came agonisingly close to immortality and left without the trophy that mattered most at home.
The nickname Neverkusen became shorthand for that history. It was clever, cruel and difficult to escape. Every subsequent title challenge carried the ghosts of the previous ones. By the beginning of 2023/24, Leverkusen had played 44 Bundesliga seasons without becoming German champion.
Leverkusen did not enter 2023/24 trying merely to win a league. They were trying to change what decades of near-misses had taught football to expect from them.
Xabi Alonso Changes the Story
The transformation had begun before the title season. Alonso took charge in October 2022 with Leverkusen sitting near the bottom of the Bundesliga. By the end of his first campaign, he had taken the club into European competition and to the UEFA Europa League semi-finals.
The following summer gave him a squad capable of expressing a much more complete idea. Granit Xhaka arrived to organise the centre of the pitch. Alejandro Grimaldo brought technical quality and end product from the left. Victor Boniface added power and movement in attack. Jonas Hofmann provided intelligence between the lines. The existing core included Florian Wirtz, Jeremie Frimpong, Jonathan Tah, Edmond Tapsoba, Exequiel Palacios and Robert Andrich.
Alonso knitted those pieces into a team that could dominate without becoming predictable. Leverkusen often built with three defenders, controlled midfield through Xhaka and a rotating partner, pushed Grimaldo and Frimpong high and wide, and gave Wirtz freedom to find the spaces between midfield and defence.
The result was not simply attractive possession. Leverkusen could accelerate through opponents, attack the width, overload central areas, press after losing the ball and change matches from the bench. Their positional structure gave them control. Their flexibility gave them answers.
The Turning Points of Bayer Leverkusen 2023/24
The final table makes Leverkusen’s championship look overwhelming. The season itself was built through a sequence of tests that gradually turned a promising challenge into something historic.
At the home of the defending champions, Leverkusen twice came from behind. Grimaldo equalised in the first half before Palacios converted a stoppage-time penalty. It was early evidence that Alonso’s side belonged in the title conversation.
The defining statement of the title race. Josip Stanišić, Grimaldo and Frimpong scored as Leverkusen comprehensively beat the reigning champions and moved five points clear. What had been a challenge now looked increasingly like a transfer of power.
Leverkusen repeatedly turned dangerous situations into results. The Europa League tie with Qarabağ became one of the clearest examples, with Patrik Schick scoring twice in added time in the home leg to turn a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 victory.
Trailing late at home, Leverkusen again refused to lose. Andrich equalised in the 88th minute and Schick scored the winner in stoppage time. By now, the comeback was becoming part of the season’s mythology.
The chase ended five matchdays early. Boniface opened the scoring, Xhaka added the second and Wirtz produced a second-half hat-trick. Supporters spilled onto the pitch as Bayer Leverkusen became German champions for the first time.
Champions on Matchday 29: The Day Neverkusen Ended
There was no final-day calculation and no need to wait for somebody else to fail. On 14 April 2024, Leverkusen knew victory against Werder Bremen would make them champions with five matches remaining.
Boniface converted a penalty. Xhaka curled in the second. Then Wirtz took over. His three second-half goals turned the BayArena into a celebration that became increasingly impossible to contain. Supporters entered the pitch before the final whistle after the fifth goal, forcing a temporary interruption before the last seconds could be played.
When the match finally ended, the central fact was wonderfully simple: Bayer Leverkusen were Bundesliga champions.
Forty-five Bundesliga seasons had passed before the first title arrived. Only twice previously had a club clinched the championship earlier in the Bundesliga calendar. The club that had become famous for finishing second had made the title race almost brutally decisive.
The most important number was no longer five runners-up finishes. It was one Bundesliga championship.
Bayer Leverkusen 2023/24: The First Unbeaten Bundesliga Season
Winning the championship did not end the story. Leverkusen still had five league matches left and another piece of history within reach.
Those final weeks tested the unbeaten record repeatedly. Borussia Dortmund led until Stanišić equalised in the seventh minute of stoppage time. Stuttgart were 2-0 ahead at the BayArena before Leverkusen recovered, with Andrich scoring at 90+6. Against Roma in the Europa League semi-final, another Stanišić goal at 90+7 preserved the wider unbeaten run.
The pattern became almost absurd. Opponents could lead Leverkusen. They could push them deep into stoppage time. They could apparently have the match won. Yet the final whistle kept arriving with Alonso’s team undefeated.
On 18 May, Leverkusen beat Augsburg 2-1 at the BayArena. Boniface and Andrich scored before half-time, and when the final whistle sounded the record was complete: 34 Bundesliga matches, 28 wins, six draws, zero defeats.
There had been 61 Bundesliga seasons before 2023/24. Across 1,096 individual team campaigns, nobody had done it. Bayer Leverkusen were the first.
Bayern Munich had produced some of the greatest teams in Bundesliga history. None finished a league season undefeated. Alonso’s Leverkusen did.
The Bayer Leverkusen Players Who Made It Work
Leverkusen’s strength was not concentrated in one superstar. Alonso’s system gave different players different ways to decide matches, which made the team unusually difficult to neutralise.
| Player | Role in the 2023/24 Story |
|---|---|
| Florian Wirtz | The creative centre of the attack, operating between lines and producing the title-clinching hat-trick against Werder Bremen. |
| Granit Xhaka | The midfield reference point who gave Leverkusen rhythm, control and leadership in possession. |
| Alejandro Grimaldo | A left-sided playmaker disguised as a wing-back, providing goals, assists and set-piece quality. |
| Jeremie Frimpong | Explosive width and vertical running on the right, stretching defensive lines and attacking the penalty area. |
| Victor Boniface | Leverkusen’s leading Bundesliga scorer with 14 goals despite missing part of the campaign through injury. |
| Jonathan Tah | The experienced defensive anchor at the heart of a back line that conceded only 24 league goals. |
| Exequiel Palacios | A technically secure midfield option whose mobility and control complemented Xhaka. |
| Robert Andrich | Physical midfield presence, tactical alternative and scorer of crucial late goals. |
| Patrik Schick | The late-game specialist whose goals became central to Leverkusen’s comeback culture. |
| Lukáš Hrádecký | Club captain and experienced goalkeeper who provided stability behind Alonso’s aggressive structure. |
The Full Bayer Leverkusen 2023/24 Squad
The unbeaten championship was built around a recognisable core, but Bayer Leverkusen 2023/24 was never only the story of an ideal starting XI. Alonso needed different combinations across the Bundesliga, DFB-Pokal and Europa League, and the players outside the most famous names repeatedly became part of the season’s decisive moments.
The senior group changed slightly across the campaign because of injuries and the winter transfer window. Nadiem Amiri departed during the season, while Borja Iglesias arrived in January. The list below therefore represents the senior first-team players who formed part of Leverkusen’s 2023/24 campaign rather than suggesting every player was available for all 53 competitive matches.
Goalkeepers: Lukáš Hrádecký, Matěj Kovář, Niklas Lomb.
Defenders & wing-backs: Jonathan Tah, Edmond Tapsoba, Piero Hincapié, Odilon Kossounou, Josip Stanišić, Alejandro Grimaldo, Jeremie Frimpong, Arthur, Timothy Fosu-Mensah.
Midfielders: Granit Xhaka, Exequiel Palacios, Robert Andrich, Florian Wirtz, Jonas Hofmann, Nadiem Amiri, Gustavo Puerta, Noah Mbamba.
Forwards: Victor Boniface, Patrik Schick, Amine Adli, Nathan Tella, Adam Hložek, Borja Iglesias.
The Bench Was Part of the Fairy Tale
That depth mattered because the season became increasingly demanding. Leverkusen were chasing three competitions deep into May, Boniface missed a significant stretch through injury, Palacios also spent time unavailable, and Alonso continually adjusted his selections without allowing the team’s identity to disappear.
Stanišić could enter the defensive line or operate on the flank and eventually scored two of the most famous late equalisers of the run, against Borussia Dortmund and Roma. Hincapié and Kossounou allowed Alonso to rotate the back three. Tella offered direct running and pace. Adli could play across the forward line. Andrich supplied a more physical midfield option and delivered crucial goals.
Then there was Schick. With Boniface unavailable for part of the campaign, the Czech forward became much more than conventional cover. His late goals against Qarabağ helped rescue Leverkusen’s Europa League campaign, and his stoppage-time winner against Hoffenheim became another chapter in the team’s growing refusal to accept defeat.
Even the goalkeeper rotation reflected the scale of Alonso’s squad management. Hrádecký remained the captain and Bundesliga reference point, while Kovář was trusted extensively in cup and European competition. By the decisive spring months, Leverkusen were not protecting one successful lineup. They were relying on an entire squad that understood how the same football was supposed to work.
The famous starting names gave Leverkusen their identity. The wider squad helped preserve it across 53 matches. In a season remembered for goals after the 90th minute, some of its defining figures began those matches on the bench.
Why Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen Worked
The temptation with an unbeaten team is to search for one tactical secret. Leverkusen’s advantage was almost the opposite. They had several ways to solve the same problem.
Width Without Isolation
Grimaldo and Frimpong pushed high enough to pin opposing defenders, but they were rarely disconnected from the rest of the team. Their positions created lanes for Wirtz, Xhaka and the forwards to operate inside.
Control Through Midfield
Xhaka gave the side a reliable reference point. Palacios and Andrich offered different qualities around him, allowing Alonso to change the balance without changing the overall identity.
A Back Three Comfortable With the Ball
Tah, Tapsoba, Piero Hincapié and Odilon Kossounou could defend large spaces while also helping Leverkusen progress possession. That security allowed the wing-backs to start higher and the midfielders to receive in more ambitious positions.
A Bench That Changed Matches
Schick became the most dramatic example, but Alonso repeatedly found answers through substitutions. Leverkusen’s late goals were not simply supernatural fortune. Fresh attackers entered a structure already designed to push opponents backwards.
Belief Reinforced by Evidence
Every comeback made the next comeback feel possible. By spring, Leverkusen played the final minutes of matches with the conviction of a team that had repeatedly seen impossible situations bend in its favour. Tactical quality created the opportunities. Accumulated belief made them keep searching.
The 51-Game Run and the One Night Leverkusen Lost
Leverkusen’s unbeaten run extended beyond Germany. They won all six Europa League group matches and survived dramatic knockout ties against Qarabağ, West Ham and Roma. By the time they reached the final in Dublin, they had gone 51 competitive matches without defeat.
Then came Atalanta.
Gian Piero Gasperini’s side pressed aggressively, disrupted Leverkusen’s midfield and denied Xhaka and Wirtz their usual influence. Ademola Lookman scored a hat-trick in a 3-0 victory, ending both Leverkusen’s unbeaten run and their hope of completing a treble.
The defeat matters to the fairy tale because perfection finally cracked. It also revealed something about the team that the unbeaten record could not.
Three days after the most painful night of their season, Leverkusen played Kaiserslautern in the DFB-Pokal final. Xhaka scored in the 16th minute. Kossounou was sent off before half-time. Leverkusen protected the lead with 10 men and won 1-0. Their treble had disappeared in Dublin, but their first domestic double was secured in Berlin.
The season ended with two trophies, 51 consecutive matches unbeaten, an undefeated Bundesliga campaign and the first domestic double in Bayer Leverkusen history.
Why Bayer Leverkusen 2023/24 Changed the Club Forever
Every championship adds a trophy to a club’s history. Some championships change the meaning of that history.
Leverkusen’s did the latter. Before 2023/24, the club’s greatest teams were often discussed through what they almost achieved. The five Bundesliga runners-up finishes, the 2002 treble of second places and the Neverkusen label formed an unusually persistent narrative.
Alonso’s side did not merely interrupt it with a championship. They overwhelmed it with a season that produced records of its own. Ninety points. Eighty-nine league goals. Twenty-four conceded. Forty-five away points. Twenty-eight wins. No defeats.
They became the first Bundesliga champion to finish an entire season unbeaten and only the fifth club since the league’s foundation to complete a Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal double. The 51-game unbeaten sequence also set a new record among clubs from Europe’s top five leagues.
That is why this belongs among football’s fairy tales even though Leverkusen were not an anonymous outsider. The impossible element was different. A club haunted by the idea of falling short finally reached the summit, then refused to lose on the way through the entire league season.
Bayer Leverkusen spent decades being remembered for how close they came. In 2023/24, they made sure football would remember what happened when they finally arrived.
Frequently Asked Questions
When did Bayer Leverkusen win the Bundesliga?
Bayer Leverkusen won their first Bundesliga title in the 2023/24 season. The championship was secured on 14 April 2024 with a 5-0 home victory over Werder Bremen on Matchday 29.
Did Bayer Leverkusen go unbeaten in the Bundesliga?
Yes. Leverkusen finished the 2023/24 Bundesliga season with 28 wins, six draws and no defeats, becoming the first team in Bundesliga history to complete an entire 34-match campaign unbeaten.
How many points did Bayer Leverkusen get in 2023/24?
Leverkusen finished with 90 Bundesliga points. They scored 89 league goals, conceded 24 and finished 17 points ahead of second-placed VfB Stuttgart.
How long was Bayer Leverkusen’s unbeaten run?
Leverkusen went 51 consecutive competitive matches unbeaten in 2023/24 before Atalanta defeated them 3-0 in the UEFA Europa League final on 22 May 2024.
What trophies did Bayer Leverkusen win in 2023/24?
Leverkusen won the Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal, completing the first domestic double in club history. They also reached the UEFA Europa League final, where they lost to Atalanta.
Why were Bayer Leverkusen called Neverkusen?
The nickname reflected the club’s history of major near-misses, particularly five Bundesliga runners-up finishes and the 2001/02 season, when Leverkusen finished second in the Bundesliga, DFB-Pokal and UEFA Champions League. The 2023/24 championship finally broke that association.
Fact-Check Notes
Bundesliga records confirm Bayer Leverkusen finished the 2023/24 season with 90 points from 28 wins, six draws and no defeats, scoring 89 goals and conceding 24.
Bundesliga records identify Leverkusen as the first team to complete all 34 matches of a Bundesliga season unbeaten.
UEFA records confirm Atalanta’s 3-0 Europa League final victory ended Leverkusen’s 51-match unbeaten run in all competitions.
Bayer 04 records confirm the club defeated 1. FC Kaiserslautern 1-0 in the DFB-Pokal final to complete the first domestic double in club history.
Sources:
Bundesliga season records,
Bayer 04 unbeaten season report,
UEFA Europa League final report,
Bayer 04 DFB-Pokal review.