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Winning the Bundesliga this season after a decade of Bayern Munich dominance would be remarkable enough for Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen.
What’s even more remarkable is that they’re still aiming for high scores (they’re not) of It’s high pitched, but be They have reached the DFB Pokal final and are the favorites to take on Kaiserslautern, who are struggling in the second division, and today they will face West Ham United in the Europa League quarter-finals.
What’s even more remarkable is that Leverkusen remains undefeated as winter turns into spring and the nights are getting longer and longer. In all competitions. all competitions.
41 games, 36 wins, 5 draws, 0 losses.
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Leverkusen were undefeated in the first half. Will he truly have an unbeatable season?
They have at least nine games and as many as 12 left. What they have already accomplished is incredible. Also, if he can avoid losing 12 times, their accomplishment will be unparalleled.
Perhaps such an incredible season doesn’t need to be compared or discussed, but perhaps this undefeated record is worth noting – let me say it again. in all competitions — This season and beyond…
As of this writing, it may come as a surprise to learn that Leverkusen’s unbeaten record does not stand alone in European men’s football this season. Several clubs have gone on long unbeaten runs at some point this season.
New Saints (TNS), who play in the Welsh top league, went unbeaten in 41 games from August to March. However, TNS are not looking to add to that figure after losing 2-1 to Airdrionians in the Scottish Challenge Cup a few weeks ago. The cup, despite what its name suggests, is something of a Celtic Copa and hosts foreign guests every season. America.
They also lost three of their first four games of the season, losing to BK Hacken (Sweden) in the Champions League qualifiers and to the wonderfully named FC Swift Hespelange in the Europa League qualifiers. Please tell them that you are from Luxembourg.
If Leverkusen can avoid defeat in the first leg against West Ham, the magic number will be 42 and they will be eliminated on their own, not only in terms of numbers but also in terms of intangible glory. But how far are the other players in Europe this season?
There are 54 top divisions in Europe affiliated with UEFA, but 12 of them do not follow the traditional August-May(ish) season, so the 2024 campaign has only just begun or has not yet begun. . Of the remaining players, Northern Ireland’s Larne are unbeaten in all competitions this season, second only to Leverkusen and TNS, with 32 games.
Manchester City last lost in December (to Aston Villa), and Tuesday’s absurd 3-3 draw with Real Madrid was their 26th game. Perhaps surprisingly given their seemingly divine winning streak domestically, Arsenal’s longest unbeaten streak this season was 10 games at the start of the season. Their current record, broken by a 1-0 loss to Porto in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie, stands out like a sore spot in the Premier League’s perfect form.
What about the other ‘Big 5’ leagues? In Spain, Real Madrid went on a 21-game unbeaten run from September to January, but that period was interrupted by a loss to Atlético Madrid. In Italy, Juventus have an unblemished record in 19 matches. Meanwhile, France’s Paris Saint-Germain lost to Barcelona in the Champions League quarter-final first leg on Wednesday night, ending their unbeaten streak at 27.
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Another notable thing about this season is that every league has at least one team that has gone undefeated in at least 10 games. PSV Eindhoven, who lead the Eredivisie, went unbeaten in 26 league games until March, but by then they had already been eliminated from the Dutch Cup and lost to Arsenal in the Champions League. The longest record in all competitions was 20 games. .
Belgium’s Union Saint-Giroise went unbeaten in 24 league games during the regular season, but suffered a setback with defeats in Europe. Moldova’s Petrocab haven’t lost since September, but only in 16 games. Other than Leverkusen, Maltese giants Floriana were the only club to survive until 2024 without losing a game from the start of the season. Their fun ended in early January with a loss to Hamrun Spartans.
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That’s this season, but where do their accomplishments, and potential for further accomplishments, rank beyond that?
This is where things get a little trickier, as records from smaller tournaments can be unreliable, especially when you actually trace back history.
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Only two English teams are known to have gone unbeaten in the league for an entire season – Preston in 1888-1889 and Arsenal in 2003-2004 – but both lost in various cup competitions. . This feat isn’t as rare as you might think, with Red Star Belgrade achieving the feat just last season in Serbia, and Celtic and Rangers achieving the feat in recent years. , if Leverkusen can avoid defeat in the remaining six league games, they will. He is the first player in the Bundesliga to achieve this.
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However, we can say with some certainty that no top European club has ever gone a full season unbeaten in multiple competitions. Celtic were unbeaten in 62 games from 1915 to 1917, and Union Saint-Giroise were unbeaten in 60 games from 1933 to 1935, but neither of these included non-league matches, and a variety of For reasons, the respective domestic cup matches were not held that year.
To get figures that are roughly comparable to Leverkusen’s achievements, we have to look at the years since the beginning of European competition in 1955. After that, as far as we know, the longest unbeaten streak in all competitions is Eusebio’s record, his 48 matches. Benfica in the 1960s for two seasons. Two Croatian clubs, Dinamo Zagreb in 2014-2015 and Rijeka in 2016-2017, scored 45 goals, Rangers manager in 1992-1993 scored 44 goals and Juventus in 2011-2012 scored 43 goals. .
Arrigo Sacchi’s great Milan teams of the early 1990s and Louis van Gaal’s young Ajax team that won the Champions League in 1995 both scored 42 goals, a feat Leverkusen will achieve tonight. It’s a mark with potential. The record in English football is Nottingham Forest who went 40 games without conceding a goal in 1978.
Ajax won the Champions League in 1995, going unbeaten in 42 games (Clive Brunskill/ALLSPORT, Getty Images)
Looking outside Europe, it is still difficult to say for certain, but it is clear that Egypt’s Al Ahly went undefeated in the 2004-05 season, winning the Egyptian Premier League, Egypt Cup, and CAF Champions League. know. If you have other examples, please feel free to suggest them.
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This speaks volumes about Leverkusen’s brilliance under Alonso this season, but winning the Bundesliga was the only thing that seemed unthinkable at the start of the season, and it feels almost like a disappointment at the moment. It will be done. Even the most disinterested neutral would be happy to sweep the lot without losing a single game.
(Top photo: Lars Baron/Getty Images)
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