We wanted to be dominant: Alonso after crushing Bayern
Bundesliga leaders Bayer Leverkusen outplayed champions Bayern Munich for a 3-0 victory on Saturday that sent them five points clear at the top of the league and put them firmly in charge of the title race.
Goals from Josip Stanisic, Alejandro Grimaldo and Jeremie Frimpong made sure of the three points as Leverkusen, who have never won a Bundesliga title, and stretched their unbeaten run to 31 matches across all competitions this season.
Bayern, chasing a 12th straight league crown, were nowhere to be seen and managed only a single shot on target over the 90 minutes.
Xabi Alonso's team, who also twice hit the woodwork, are now on 55 points, with Bayern in second place on 50.
"Today it was a very disciplined performance from my team," said Alonso. "It was not easy but we waited for our chances. Maybe we did not have the ball too much today but we wanted to be dominant even without the ball."
"It was a very important win but it is just three points," he said. "We have to keep going. It is still February and we need to remain calm."
The visitors were caught napping when Robert Andrich, from a quickly taken throw-in, sent a cutback through the box with Stanisic, on loan from Bayern, left completely unmarked at the far post to tap in.
Spain international Grimaldo doubled the lead five minutes after the restart with his eighth league goal of the season before also hitting the crossbar with a wickedly curled corner kick.
The Bavarians had no way back into the game, and even the league's top scorer Harry Kane, who managed just 18 touches and attempted a solitary shot, failed to make any impact.
"We were not able to carve out any chances, even later in the game when we had five or six attacking players. I don't have an explanation for why we did not get Harry more involved in the game," said Bayern coach Thomas Tuchel.
Frimpong hit the post in the 88th but the Dutch international finally got onto the scoresheet when he raced clear and netted into an empty net in stoppage time after Bayern keeper Manuel Neuer went into the opponents' box for a corner.
Bayern veteran Thomas Mueller criticised his side for lacking courage when it came to playing freely.
"What I am missing is that in training we seem to be much better, more courageous because we are playing more freely," Mueller told Sky Sports Germany.
"We play from A to B and then to C without any freedom and no one really takes a gamble. Today we were not there. We lost 3-0."
"There were enough international-level players on the pitch, so there is no reason to talk about the coach," Mueller added.
Key stats
*Bayer Leverkusen are unbeaten in 31 competitive games in a row (W27, D4), and are only one game away from breaking Bayern Munich's record of remaining unbeaten in 32 games, the most by a Bundesliga side. The defending league champions built the record from 2019 to 2020 under former coach Hansi Flick.
*Bayern have failed to score in two of their last five Bundesliga games. This happened only twice in their previous 153 league games.
*Leverkusen defender Josip Stanisic, on loan from Bayern, scored only his second Bundesliga goal yesterday. He previously scored for Bayern against Wolfsburg in May 2022.