SOCCER
How many games did Bayer Leverkusen go unbeaten and when had they last lost?
Leverkusen had not tasted defeat for almost a year, but were beaten to the Europa League trophy in Dublin as Ademola Lookman bagged a hat-trick for Atalanta.
Bayer Leverkusen’s historic unbeaten run came to an end in today’s Europa League final, as Atalanta swept Xabi Alonso’s men aside to lift their first ever continental trophy.
Atalanta dominated Leverkusen at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium, where Ademola Lookman scored a hat-trick to give the Italians a 3-0 victory.
When had Leverkusen last suffered defeat?
Defeat for Leverkusen curbed the Germans’ 51-game unbeaten sequence, which had stretched back almost exactly a year. Die Werkself had not lost a competitive match since going down to a 3-0 defeat to VfL Bochum on the final day of the 2022/23 Bundesliga campaign, on 27 May 2023.
Since then, Leverkusen had avoided defeat in 34 games in the Bundesliga, 12 in the Europa League and five in the DFB-Pokal, Germany’s major domestic cup competition.
Leverkusen unbeaten run sets records
Having begun the season with an 8-0 thrashing of lower-league Teutonia Ottensen in the DFB-Pokal first round last August, Leverkusen went on to surpass a European-record unbeaten run that had stood for just under six decades.
Until the team’s 2-2 draw with Roma in the second leg of the Europa League semi-finals earlier this month, no club in Europe had enjoyed a longer undefeated sequence than the Benfica side that went 48 games unbeaten in all competitions between December 1963 and February 1965.
And in the Bundesliga, Leverkusen became the first team ever to go through an entire German top-flight campaign without defeat, confirming their ‘invincibles’ tag with a 2-1 final-day win over Augsburg on Saturday.
Treble dream over for Leverkusen
Defeat to Atalanta also ended Leverkusen’s hopes of a domestic and European treble this season. Having secured the club’s first ever German title in April, Alonso’s side were now out to add the Europa League and the DFB-Pokal to their 2023/24 trophy haul. Leverkusen face Kaiserslautern in the final of the DFB-Pokal on Saturday 25 May, with Berlin’s Olympiastadion the venue for the showpiece event.