Bayer Leverkusen 2023–24: The End of Neverkusen

For decades, Bayer Leverkusen were German football’s great almost. Five times a Bundesliga runner-up. A treble runner-up in 2001–02 — beaten in the league, the German cup and the Champions League final in a single, cruel season. The nickname wrote itself: Neverkusen. Then Xabi Alonso arrived, and in 2023–24 the club that never won finally didn’t lose.

The record

Leverkusen’s 2023–24 Bundesliga season finished like this:

• 28 wins, 6 draws, 0 losses
• 90 points (from a possible 102)
• Champions — the first league title in the club’s history
• The first unbeaten Bundesliga season ever recorded

For a competition dating to 1963, and a club that had spent its entire existence collecting silver medals, going a full campaign without a single defeat was a stunning inversion of everything the “Neverkusen” jibe stood for. Alonso, in his first full season in senior management, had built a side of ruthless late goals and total control.

The spine of the side

This was a team, not a collection of names — the same lesson the greatest sides always teach. Granit Xhaka anchored the midfield with the calm of a player finally in the right system. Florian Wirtz supplied the creativity, Victor Boniface and Patrik Schick the goals, Jonathan Tah and captain Lukáš Hrádecký the security at the back, and left-back Alejandro Grimaldo an absurd return of goals and assists from full-back. They specialised in refusing to be beaten — a run of stoppage-time equalisers early in the season became the campaign’s signature.

The double, and a European record run

The league title wasn’t the end of it. Leverkusen also won the DFB-Pokal, completing a domestic double, and stretched their unbeaten run across all competitions into one of the longest in European football history. That streak eventually ended in the Europa League final, where Atalanta beat them — a reminder that even the most relentless unbeaten side eventually meets its afternoon.

Unbeaten — but not perfect

You know the pattern by now. Six draws. Six times across those 34 league games that Leverkusen were held, that a point was shared rather than three taken. A perfect Bundesliga season would have been 34 wins and 102 points; Alonso’s side took 90.

That’s no criticism — it was one of the great modern league campaigns, sitting comfortably alongside the seasons in our greatest league seasons guide. But it lands in exactly the same place as every other unbeaten side ever assembled: legendary, historic, and still short of flawless. Leverkusen join the honour roll in our full list of unbeaten top-flight seasons, every one of which — Preston, Arsenal, Milan, Juventus, and now Leverkusen — was undone by the same thing: the draw. For the modern reference point over a full 38 games, revisit Arsenal’s Invincibles.