Bayer Leverkusen scores and wins its first Bundesliga title

Leverkusen. Never is over for Leverkusen

Led by Xabi Alonso, Bayer Leverkusen won their first Bundesliga title on Sunday to end Bayern Munich’s 11-year reign as champions.

And in the end it wasn’t even that close, Leverkusen is 16 points ahead of Bayern.

Florian Wirtz scored a hat trick and Leverkusen beat Werder Bremen 5-0 in a duel that ended with a pitch invasion after the club won its first German league title with five games remaining.

“It’s indescribable… I don’t think it was possible or I personally don’t believe it yet,” Wirtz told streaming partner DAZN.

“I need a little time in the locker room to really accept what we have achieved. But yeah, so far it’s been nice to celebrate outside with the fans and have a little party in the locker room.”

Fans stormed the pitch when Leverkusen scored their fourth goal seven minutes from time and the final minutes had to be played in thick red smoke after fans set off flares while players on the Leverkusen bench applauded and danced with the songs while they hugged each other.

The fifth goal at 90 minutes led to more fans taking to the field—by the hundreds—and the referee ended the match amid confusion and celebrations. Thousands of fans took to the field with flags, flares and cardboard copies of the Bundesliga trophy.

Victor Boniface calmed Leverkusen’s nerves by opening the scoring with a penalty before Granit Xhaka fired from long range to make it 2-0 with half an hour remaining.

Bremen dropped after this goal and substitute Wirtz scored in similar fashion to Xhaka before adding his second in the 83rd and third late on, the first hat-trick of his career.

Leverkusen is looking for a historic hat-trick of titles. Alonso’s team will face second-division Kaiserslautern in the German Cup final on May 25 in Berlin and has a 2-0 lead over West Ham in the Europa League quarterfinals.

This title shines the spotlight on an industrial city of less than 170,000 inhabitants that has always been overshadowed by its more famous neighbors.

“Not in Cologne and Düsseldorf, no, we are at home here,” says the third line of the club song that they sing before the start of the matches.

The club began as a team of Bayer pharmaceutical workers 120 years ago and is an exception to the rule in Germany, where most clubs are controlled by their members under the 50+1 rule.