It was a brilliant night for Liverpool in Europe as Alisson Becker helped the Reds to a narrow victory over PSG. But things did not go quite so well for Xabi Alonso and Bayer Leverkusen.
Playing fellow Bundesliga outfit Bayern Munich away from home, Harry Kane netted twice, either side of a Jamal Musiala goal, to put Leverkusen three down at the halfway mark in the tie. To rub salt in the wound, Nordi Mukiele was also shown a red card.
Alonso and his players have not given up hope of turning things around, however. In fact, the former Liverpool midfielder was asked if he could hold any hopes of repeating the “Miracle of Istanbul” by coming from 3-0 down to go through to the quarter finals.
“Absolutely,” Alonso replied. “It will take time to analyze and go through this result because we have been beaten well. Everything went against us because of us.
“But it is not over until it is over and, as you said, anything can happen. The mindset has to be that and if there is a chance, we will fight for it. We have to fight back.
“We will learn from this and believe in our return leg. We don’t give up so easily. Three goals? You never know. One goal can change anything.”
(Image: Photo by Jörg Schüler/Bayer 04 Leverkusen via Getty Images)
Bayern Munich, now under the stewardship of Vincent Kompany, is eight points clear of current champion Bayer Leverkusen in the Bundesliga table. With 10 games remaining in the German top flight, that is a substantial lead.
Liverpool.com says: It was always going to be a difficult ask for Alonso to win the Bundesliga again having done so last season with Leverkusen. He chose to stay when there was interest from other clubs with the Champions League a big factor in convincing him there was still more to be achieved with the group of players, which he largely kept together.
Bayern Munich was always going to come back in the league title hunt, though Leverkusen has been unfortunate to draw the same team in Europe too. If Carlo Ancelotti leaves Real Madrid in the summer, Alonso will remain a prime candidate for that job no matter how the rest of the campaign pans out for him in Germany.
