Under the guidance of coach Xabi Alonso, Bayer Leverkusen has truly become an “invincible” machine this season. After 8 rounds, Leverkusen is still maintaining the top spot in the Bundesliga with 22 points. And not only in the domestic arena, Alonso and his team also showed a “destructive” performance in the Europa League.
This morning, Leverkusen welcomed Qarabag at home in the third series of group matches, and there were no surprises when they crushed the team from Azerbaijan with a final score of 5-1. Not only did they win all 9 points after 3 matches, Alonso’s team also showed off their tremendous strength by scoring 11 goals and only conceding twice in the Europa League this season.
Leverkusen flies high thanks to Alonso.
A major contributor to Leverkusen’s victory over Qarabag was obviously Florian Wirtz, who put them ahead early in the 5th minute of the match. Not only that, the 20-year-old talent also had a spectacular hat-trick of assists, and officially led the Europa League “King of assists” list with 4 assists for his teammates to score since the beginning. season.
It’s easy to assert that Wirtz’s classy performances are one of the reasons leading to Leverkusen’s series of impressive performances in the Europa League, when he directly contributed to 6 of this club’s goals in just 3 games. battle. In the Bundesliga, the German midfielder also shined equally with 1 goal and 3 assists after 8 matches. Under Alonso’s hands, it is clear that Wirtz has developed significantly, and even surpassed his “predecessor”.
Wirtz is playing sublimely.
In the summer of 2020, Kai Havertz officially moved to Chelsea through a blockbuster contract, and Wirtz was the name chosen by Leverkusen to directly fill the void left by Havertz. At that time, Wirtz had just turned 17 and was considered one of the brightest talents in German football. Now, what he has done at the age of 20 is superior to Havertz in the past.
Data from Transfermarkt shows that this season, Wirtz has contributed to 11 Leverkusen goals in 12 matches. More specifically, he directly contributed to 0.92 goals/match. As for Havertz, in his final season with Leverkusen, he scored 18 goals and contributed 9 more assists after 45 appearances. On average per match, Havertz contributes to 0.6 goals, a very impressive number but far less than Wirtz.
It is important to know that Havertz achieved the above achievement at the age of 20, and clearly, he has been surpassed by his junior at the present time. If he continues to maintain his explosive form until the end of the season, Wirtz will certainly join the ranks of the best attacking players in Europe.
Huynh Phong | 09:44 October 27, 2023
