Fans believe Bayer Leverkusen may lose their unbeaten run in their Bundesliga match against Eintracht Frankfurt this weekend.
Thursday evening saw Bayer Leverkusen claim a 2-0 first-leg victory at Roma to take command of their Europa League semi-final and stretch the German outfit's unbeaten run to 47 matches in all competitions.
The Bundesliga champions’ extraordinary run of games without defeat has broken several domestic and European records, while they have won a remarkable 39 out of 47 of those fixtures, drawing on only eight occasions and failing to score just once.
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Leverkusen are just three games away from an unbeaten Bundesliga campaign, while they have a potential DFB Cup final against Kaiserslautern on 25 May and the prospect of a Europa League final against Marseille or Atalanta in Dublin on 22 May, should they dispatch Roma in the semi-final.
The prospect of getting past Frankfurt unscathed on Sunday has become just a little bit harder however, with manager Xabi Alonso set to be absent from the bench, having accumulated too many yellow cards.
His assistant Sebastian Parrilla will take charge from the Leverkusen dugout in Alonso’s place.
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And fans on X, formally Twitter, are now claiming Alonso’s absence against Frankfurt may spell the end of Leverkusen’s unbeaten run.
One said: “Their unbeaten streak is coming to an end then.”
A second added: “I pray they lose their today I’m sick and tired of them.”
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A third wrote: “Might be the end of the streak!”
Should Leverkusen go unbeaten for two more games, they would surpass Benfica’s long-standing record of the longest unbeaten run across all competitions in European football since the introduction of UEFA club competitions.
Inspired by the legendary Eusebio, Benfica went 48 games without a loss between 1963 and 1965.
Speaking ahead of the game against Frankfurt, Alonso said: “We want to stay unbeaten and we know every week it gets tougher. Everyone wants to beat us.
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“It hasn’t been easy in Frankfurt in recent years, it’s always a tough opponent with a flexible system of play. We don’t have much time to prepare.”
Topics: Bayer Leverkusen, Bundesliga, Eintracht Frankfurt, Europa League, Xabi Alonso, Football
Chris Byfield