May 2016
Monthly Results
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Bayer Leverkusen 3-0 VfL Wolfsburg (Bradley 72, 90, Sukuta-Pasu 76)
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Eintracht Frankfurt 1-4 Bayer Leverkusen (Rosenthal 14 - Botia 18, Derdiyok 21, 28, 65)
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Bayer Leverkusen 3-0 FC Bayern München (German Cup Final - Olympiastadion, Berlin) (Fernandez 12, Derdiyok 53, 90+2)
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FC Bayern München 2-5 Bayer Leverkusen (European Champions Cup Final - Ernst-Happel Stadion, Vienna) (Cabaye 60, Babacar 83 - Fernandez 51, Derdiyok 54, 61, Bustos 84, Kiessling 86)
Match: Bayer Leverkusen - VfL Wolfsburg
Score: 3-0 (Bradley 72, 90, Sukuta-Pasu 76)
League Position: 1st (winner)
Summary: For the first quarter hour, Wolfsburg dominate, and it looked like Drenthe had put Wolfsburg ahead in the 16th, but he was flagged offside - it was pretty close but we must trust the officials, right?
Except when the call goes against us! We had so much trouble getting into the game that our first real chance comes in the 45th minute, started by Sandro pinching a pass and starting the attack, then Bradley and Kadlec knocking it back and forth on the left until they get Kadlec clear for a cross, headed by Derdiyok from just inside the penalty spot, but not quite on target. The ref saw a deflection, but w did nothing with the corner. The second half opens in a more positive fashion, and Bradley's whizzed a shot past the post in the 47th. It looks like we've carved them open for Derdiyok, but he's flagged offside - very close (with the whistle blowing I won't blame him for not scoring it). Adler called into action shortly after. The next patch is us fending off Wolfsburg forays, fortunately their entry pass isn't finding anything but red shirts. Bradley fires again, right at the keeper, Bradley looking very lively. Unhappy with Derdiyok and Kiessling's contributions, I've given them the hook in favor of Mares and Sukuta-Pasu, with the latter creating a chance pretty quickly. A goal finally comes when Bradley dumps a pass off in midfield and continues his run, with Wolfsburg asleep he's eventually found by Sukuta-Pasu and completely clear, he scores, 72 minutes in! Bradley's picked out Sukuta-Pasu with a positive pass into space, and he scores. At there very end there's one more - Bradley starts a rush, Sukuta-Pasu takes it wide left and pretty much only Leverkusen have made the run with him, it's four red shirts in the box and one defender, once the pass comes in Bradley scores it easily. Odd one, this. Yes it was in the meaningless category but I was still very grumpy at the poor performance almost throughout. I'm hard pressed to remember a home match where we've let the other side have 59% of the ball, and when we're playing well, we win lots of corners - attacking intent putting the other side under pressure. We had one (to be fair, Wolfsburg also had only one). The substitutes did energize things, but the Bradley performance was one I really appreciated, those were excellent positive moves on both of his goals to continue runs, get clear and score, and it's the kind of "stepping up" that gets high marks, when so much else wasn't working. Not something he's known for. He's been on my tentative list to clear some space at the club, perhaps he's sensed this and put in quite a show. Certainly his statistical performance has been on an upwards trajectory, but he hasn't played that much this year. Meanwhile, Bustos had a chance to keep the argument up he should be the starting AMC, instead he performed apathetically and let his case regress, especially sad since the Argentina manager was in the audience for this one.
We've scored 93 goals now for the season, which exceeds the 92 we scored is 2013/14. The points total equals what we had last year.
Chelsea had the EPL title in their own control, but have let the advantage slip: they drew at Fulham. Combined with an Arsenal home win over then #3 Aston Villa, Arsenal are now top on goal difference - and it's a big margin. An Arsenal win in Sunday's finale at #8 Wolves and the title is theirs; Chelsea host #7 Liverpool but unless Arsenal slip, even the best result won't get them the title. In the worst case, Man City could still pip them for 2nd.
It was our last home match, attended by just over 56.000. Mainz will win the title as the highest average attendance by capacity at 98%, but we've stayed in the picture despite the increased capacity. In the 13 home matches since the expanded stadium debuted on 23 December, we've had these attendances: 52.935, 52.957, 57.262, 54.565, 52.958, 52.948, 56.850, 52.957, 57.262, 55.324, 54.353, 57.262, 56.013. I think this is not bad, and I'm going to claim some credit, when I arrived we were getting crowds of 29-30.000, capacity or close to it yes, but the success has made the case for first a new stadium, then an expansion, and we've kept on filling it.
I'm still in a personal state of limbo. My contract with Leverkusen is expiring, they offered a new contract at the same rate earlier in the season, which I turned down; just a few days ago they came back with the same offer. I suggested a different number which the board "couldn't possibly accept". I hope I'm not being too out of touch with reality here, I feel like my accomplishments merit a contract on par with some of the higher profile coaches in Europe. One point is that I don't have anything really left to prove: we've ruled Germany for four years, we've been at the top level of the Champions Cup for three. That's been done while keeping a very reasonable salary structure, and bringing the success that's led to the increase in fan support noted above. That follows two years taking Hibernian to the top after years and years of frustration - and managing to build the overall club structure to the point where that success has continued. So, I could stay here to build a long-term dynasty, if properly recognized by the board, but we're going to have to spend a fair bit of money: Bayern have had to strengthen their club, and they've spent a lot of money doing so, the most notable signings being Babacar and Neymar (€60 between them in transfer fees), a well as a defender Mapou Yanga Mbiwa, who hasn't yet made an impact, for another €16m. This has brought Bayern back up to close to our level - their existing weaknesses didn't let them hold a high level for the entire league season, but it was enough to make the German cup final and European cup final, so you can see Leverkusen are about to get pushed. We have loaded up on youth prospects, but strengthening in anticipation still seems likely to be necessary. Anyway, sorry, I'm drifting: either a new challenge, or get compensated like a high profile coach. So far, Leverkusen don't seem willing to show me the right intent in this regard.
Celtic stumble, this has put Hibernian into the SPL advantage. However, the only thing now that can keep the race from being decided on the final day would be a Hibernian win over Motherwell and a Celtic loss to Falkirk on Saturday. Hibs lead by a point, Celtic are +2 as far as goal difference advantage.
Match: Eintracht Frankfurt - Bayer Leverkusen
Score: 1-4 (Rosenthal 14 - Botia 18, Derdiyok 21, 28, 65)
League Position: 1st (winner)
Summary: Final match of the season, and after two good chances from a single sequence, which we don't score on, Rosenthal has headed in a corner, cashing in on our new weakness, set piece defending. Botia returns the favor, though. Kiessling has our second shot off the woodwork. Derdiyok breaks right through the middle to score. Moments later, he heads in a corner. Four total goals inside a half hour! Frankfurt know they're going down now - there was a hope of making the playoff and maybe escaping, but we've deflated that hope and the spirit goes out, we begin to dominate. Just before the break - it's in the minute of stoppage - a deflected Fernandez shot is up in the air and Derdiyok beats the keeper to it and scores his third. Wait... very late, the referee has decided that Derdiyok in some way interfered with the keeper, so it doesn't count. Based on by view, that was dead wrong, but I'm not going to irritate the referees for no compelling reason, since this looks like a won match. Maybe a quiet word afterwards. In the 2nd, Derdiyok looks like he's sure to get the 3rd, but it glances a little funny off his head and with a very agile reaction Botia at the far post directs it in. Wait... another phantom foul on Derdiyok, now I'm getting rather irritated, there's no call to be taking our goals off the board when our players are doing nothing wrong. (On post-match replay, Derdiyok wasn't even within two yards of the player he's supposed to have fouled. The assistant, who flagged, was screened while the referee had a really clear view - why did he give it?) Fernandez feeds Derdiyok who scores... does this one count? Yes, finally it's good, and it's Derdiyok's 100th league goal. We take Derdiyok out a bit later so he can accept the cheers of the Leverkusen fans who have made the trip.
We've ended the league season with Derdiyok on 20 league goals, Kiessling with 19, not bad to have that kind of diversity. Another eight players scored between four and seven league goals - I'm really pleased there was always someone ready to step up, it's what makes for a really good side, because the designated goal-scorers do have off days, have defenders figure out how to shut them down, etc.
Hibernian take their turn to stumble to a draw and give the advantage back to Celtic, that means Celtic have the title with a win or draw, Hibernian need to win.
Chelsea's round-37 stumble to a draw at Fulham turned out to be fatal, they've lost the league title to Arsenal on goal difference, which has got to be the worst feeling in the world: what could we have done differently? Leverkusen had that feeling, the season before I arrived. In Chelsea's case, they've lost by seven goals of goal difference. They led the league with 70 scored, 10 more than Arsenal (and one more than 2nd high scorer and league #3 Man City), but conceded almost double - 35 let in to Arsenal's 18. So the answer is "we didn't defend well enough", or perhaps "we didn't concentrate enough when we had a lead" - probably a combination of both. League winner Arsenal scoring 60 in 38 matches? That doesn't sound like a respectable total for a league winner, and the Arsenal of Roberto Mancini clearly isn't much like the Arsenal of Arsene Wenger before him (Wenger retired after winning the league title in the 2011/2012 season).
Hibernian have the title in their grasp with 1-0 and 2-1 leads, but allow two late goals for Celtic to do more than they needed - a 3-2 win. Both late goals were near-post shots that the keeper Mark Brown should have stopped, Hibernian's stupidity in letting Boucher go to Zenit for a way too small a fee probably the difference between a title and second place.
We only had two loanees out, Dieye seems to have advanced his cause with plenty of action at Steaua Bucharst, where he did extremely well; Enzo Reale has not done much to enhance his reputation at Deportivo where he didn't play much and had a season without impact.
Hertha managed to sneak into the playoff spot, and enhance their chances of staying up with a 6-1 first-leg win over Oberhausen.
Match: Bayer Leverkusen - FC Bayern München (German Cup Final - Olympiastadion, Berlin)
Score: 3-0 (Fernandez 12, Derdiyok 53, 90+2)
Summary: Bayern confuse me a bit, they choose not to run out their top lineup for this, not sure why because the club needs silverware and the German Cup is a big one. After Derdiyok misses a chance in the early minutes (not an easy one, it must be said), Fernandez puts us in top with a strike on a free kick. Fernandez puts Troost through, but the easy shot is woefully wide, casting doubt on my decision to pick him for this one. Quite a bit later Fernandez has set up Troost who has a good position to chip, but it goes wide. Why didn't I choose Kiessling? Neymar's got a chip going the other way, that one's just barely wide. We've blown some more chances going into the break, and then coming out of it, even with a change in scheme (narrowing the formation and Bender in for Schürrle). Finally, Derdiyok cashes in one of the opportunities, and it's about as tough a shot as you could imagine. Adler has to tip a long bending shot wide, Bayern win a string of corners but Sandro eventually clears out the danger. It's getting to "garbage time" late, and a Sukuta-Pasu shot is deflected too close to Derdiyok who scores it - the keeper Sidibe did recover to get a hand to it but not enough. Cup win is ours, in convincing fashion.
One more to go.
There are some German awards; Kroos is footballer of the year, which isn't a horrid choice; Schürrle and Adler trail. In a much less sane competition, Wojchiech Szczesny is keeper of the year, followed by Diego Benaglio and Fabian Giefer. All of them had good years, but if Adler is 3rd for player of the year, as a keeper, how does he not make the top three for keeper of the year? More anti-Leverkusen bias. Botia and Vida do take 1st and 3rd for defender of the year, more fair. I'm second for manager of the year behind Bayern's Steve McClaren. The winning manager pretty much always gets it unless someone had a breakout year; perennial favorite Bayern finishing 20 points behind us comes nowhere near to qualifying. Botia and Derdiyok are the only two to make the first division team of the year.
Match: FC Bayern München - Bayer Leverkusen (European Champions Cup Final - Ernst-Happel Stadion, Vienna)
Score: 2-5 (Cabaye 60, Babacar 83 - Fernandez 51, Derdiyok 54, 61, Bustos 84, Kiessling 86)
Summary: Bayern run out a considerably stronger lineup for this one. Unfortunately for the fans, the weather is dismal for this final, pouring down rain. It's a half where we start very poorly, giving the ball away constantly, then gradually get better as the half goes on. Neither side mount any serious threats. That changes quickly, Babacar has too much space out front and has a good look at the goal in only the second minute after the restart, he's put it just wide though. Derdiyok works his way through but has his shot saved. Oh, what a pas by Bradley, he's found Fernandez in a pocket and the shot is true! The streaky "Matigol" has finished strong. Suddenly we've found some spacing, and Derdiyok receives, turns, and blasts home! Big danger minutes later, Fernandez free kick into the box, but Pele threads his way through bodies to snare it. Sleepy defending, a give and go with Babacar has him through, Adler gets down to save it, but the ball comes right to Cabaye who puts it in, it's not salted yet, 30 minutes to go. Oh, Fernandez has done it again, sets up Derdiyok who scores, suddenly this is a goal fest! Speaking of finishing strong, Derdiyok now has four in the two big finals. Time running down now, both sides switch multiple players around 80 minutes, in our case we had three very tired. Babacar sneaks in a shot that doesn't look like it should have beaten Adler, 3-2 now. And then one of those subs, Bustos, places a long shot at the lower left post and beats Pele, 4-2. That came out of nowhere! A little bit of keeper question on both of these two late goals. And then Bustos heads for goal, he's in the box when a tackle pokes it away but it's come into the path of Kiessling who tries to blast through the back of the net... doesn't succeed at that, but he's scored, 5-2, another big burst of scoring. We've won the Champions Cup for the second year running! After years of not seeing repeat winners - the last occurrence had been AC Milan in 1989 and 1990, it's now happened consecutively - Olympique Marseille in 2013 and 2014, Bayer Leverkusen in 2015 and 2016. What an odd game, scoreless for 50 minutes, then explodes with seven goals the rest of the way.
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We get more respect from the ECC Dream Team selectors, with six players on the list: Adler, Kadlec, Vida, Sandro, Fernandez and Derdiyok.
Quite simply: it was an utterly astonishing year. In the entire calendar we've played 54 matches that count, winning 49, drawing 3 and losing 2. The level of success got lost at times, as there was always something to worry about for next match, signs of a slump that I was trying to fight, etc. The strange things is, we ended up with two opponents we couldn't beat, although we sort of beat one of them: Hamburg handed us our only two defeats, and Juventus battled us to a pair of draws - we advanced in the competition because of the somewhat dubious away goals rule. Hamburg were a pretty good team, they've finished 5th and qualified for European competition. Similar for Juventus - 5th in Italy, and return to Europe, though that's a slip from the previous year, which earned them this visit to Europe's top competition. The final team to dent our record were Bochum, who caught us in a bad moment and battled to a draw, really we should have been good enough to get a win against what ended up the 13th placed club, although they were very proficient at earning draws - 13 of their 34 matches ended that way.
Usually at the end of the season I have to thoroughly evaluate the club and make decisions on my own status. I may have finished burning bridges at Leverkusen, having turned down their offer of a new contract several times. The issues have already been well discussed: is there enough challenge to be worth staying? Am I happy with not receiving more recognition in terms of a more lucrative contract offer? The offer has been the same as the one of four years ago, when I was coming off a pair of successful seasons in Scotland, but really hadn't proven anything in terms of longevity of success, or making headway at the top of European football. Four years later, I ought to be considered more of a proven commodity. But this year there don't seem to be vacancies at the top clubs, unlike last summer when a near-deal fell through at the last moment.
Club wise... I keep feeling like we're over-performing. This is not a club filled with big stars if you look at a world stage. Keeper Adler is probably one of the best in the world at his position, but isn't getting credit for it. My two English imports, both pinched off of Spurs who didn't seem to want them, are playing superbly. Sandro continued to evolve, and now has the strange situation that he's the best choice in the team at two positions - defensive midfielder and right midfielder. In terms of his own strongest position it's DMC but he seemed to relish a role on the right that let him get into the attack more and he potted 11 goals - a player who had a grand total of two in his five previous seasons in Europe. Kyle Walker didn't make as much impact this season, but that's due to being slowed after the turn of the year by a pair of ligament injuries, one a knee, the other an ankle. He still managed to be our top average rating player over the full season, though in the end appearing only 25 times. Meanwhile Gonzalo Castro worked hard to try and prove he should be the #1 at right back, he got into 36 matches and was only one off the team assist lead with 10. It's a glorious situation to have, but perhaps is overkill. Winning European club championships soothes a lot of the sting at not playing all the time but that may be temporary.
Continuing with the wide midfielders, Andre Schürrle is, if not world-class, certainly among the best playing in Germany. At 25 he's still young and may have more growth in him, perhaps in maturity if not in technical skills. But I'm not just totally gushing over him: he almost carried the club in the early part of the season making a tremendous impact, but then kind of faded into a more supportive role. That worked okay with the two senior forwards scoring in bunches but I could maybe have seen a bit more from him. Sidney Sam, who usually mans the right, also tailed off a bit and by the end of the year, Sandro was more often the choice here, which wasn't making Sam overjoyed. Sandro not only provided a more physical presence for those times we needed it (he's a half-foot taller and 12 kilos heavier, plus just plain a more defensively solid (and minded) player, but he provided more offensive spark on a more consistent basis. Jorgensen as a backup looked to be blossoming but his role this season faded as he didn't make much impact; youngster Biglia started to work his way into the senior side but there's clearly much that has to happen before he's ready to be a regular contributor.
In the central midfield positions, it was a mixed bag. Sandro, of course, was a special player. Youngster Nestor Vazquez showed signs he's ready to contribute regularly, and he's turned out to be one of our most accurate passers (in percentage terms, he was a fair ways clear of the pack, actually, at 87%). But there's growth that has to happen, he's got blistering pace which rarely came into play, showed some problems in discipline and concentration, and was inconsistent; he's not a good dribbler (which limits the impact of his passes because defenders know he will pass and is not great off the ball. Lars Bender was again pretty good statistically but failed to make impacts very often. Michael Bradley came on and had a good second half of the season; he had some injuries in the early part of the year which was probably partly a factor. Still, for this pair, you don't see the performances of key starters on a top-five-in-Europe club, but of squad players. I'm not sure we need to have both of them; Bender should be doing better than he is, but he retains a bit of an edge because he counts as home-grown and is a year younger. Bradley is a little more physical, though. At the attacking role, Matias Fernandez was on and off. He had two tremendous stretches of play, meaning that overall he improved on his showing last year, but not quite to the level of his first season after coming over from Sporting. He seems to have a tremendous ability to make a cutting pass, but it's kind of hit or miss situation: he also will go through long stretches where he just doesn't seem very involved. Ivan Bustos showed increasing signs that he's ready to step up, maybe push to be the starter. He had seven assists in the league, despite making only seven starts. The other two in this equation, Zvonko Pami? and Salaheddine Naciri, failed to make much impact. At least one of those two players needs to move out, we're just too crowded in midfield.
At forward it's a problem of riches: Marijn Troost is ready to be a regular starter, but how can you slot him in instead of either Eren Derdiyok (30 goals) or Stefan Kiessling (31). Kiessling still looks fresh and impressive at 32, while Derdiyok should be about at his peak years at 27. Troost managed nine goals and 10 assists while starting 15 and subbing six times (missing a total of over three months with a pair of injuries, which delayed the time of decision...). I kept saying Richard Sukuta-Pasu was disappointing, and early in the season he just didn't make a lot of impact, but in the end he's made 10 goals, 5 assists appearing only 23 times (12 starts, 11 in relief). And we've got two youngsters who are going to need some more senior appearances, Jordy Pool and Petr Mares. Mares played mainly for the reserves, which of course is a lower level, but his stat line shows 48 goals total! In fairness to Sukuta-Pasu, he should probably get a transfer to a club that will let him be a regular starter, it's not going to happen with this group of six.
The defenders are a pretty solid group. Botia anchors the line, he ought to be considered one of the best in the world. His partner is now Domagoj Vida, who's established a clear position - although he can still fill in at both fullbacks and at DMC, if needed. And youngster Mitchell Winter is pushing hard for a spot, meaning that Dante has slipped to 4th in the order, but he did choose to sign up for a new contract at lower wages. Never mind some senior leadership even if the player isn't likely to be a regular again (I similarly offered a deal to Chris Hogg at Hibernian when it didn't look like he would be a key piece, because he was a leader and still a solid defender - and then he turned out to be pretty important that season after all). There are other youngsters waiting to prove they need to be considered, mainly Bjorn Meltzer - but he doesn't seem quite ready yet and there's much competition. Already talked about right back; at left back we have Michal Kadlec and Bastian Oczipka, a pair I thought of more highly earlier in my tenure. Oczipka had his year largely ruined by a broken leg at the very end of the previous season that kept him out until November. I have a little trouble with him as the backup, because he's prone to a sudden really bad game in a string of fairly good ones. Kadlec is fine as the starter for now, but here's the position where staff thinks we're most prone to wanting an upgrade - it's the only position where we can't run out at least a 3-star (in current estimations) player. That's a slip a bit from the past, not because his skills have eroded, but because our expectations set the bar a bit higher. At 31, playing a demanding position, some falloff may not be far away though. Nothing at all in his statistical performance indicates we have any reason to be unhappy with him! It's more a case of looking to the future as maybe he starts to show some age, and considering the general principle that if you stand still you're moving backwards, because your rivals (Bayern, domestically; all the big clubs if you consider the European stage) will be striving to improve to catch up to where we've been. We have some youngsters here - Babacar Dieye has had a very productive loan spell in Bucharest, getting in a lot of games and doing well in them, even developing a scoring touch; while newer arrival Andres Traverso spent the half-season acclimatising to the club and doing extremely well in his Leverkusen II appearances. Dieye is 22, Traverso 19; Traverso will almost certainly be a way better player but needs a lot more seasoning. Unfortunately, while both are versatile defenders who can play on the left, right back is the natural position for both.
At goalkeeper, Adler is the unquestioned leader; 20 year old Peter Nowak has the potential to be almost as good, the question is whether he'll wait for the job. It's hard to imagine it will work out: he's not shown any huge liking for Adler, and at 31, Adler has a ton of years left if he doesn't get injured. However, I do tend to play my backup goalkeeper more than most managers, so hopefully he will stay motivated and hungry for another year (if I'm still here to worry about it!) and then we can just see where we stand.
So the summary of all this is, we could see some players leave to lighten congestion at the club and make the roles of key players more clear. We have right now 29 players who can be considered senior-team quality, most of the ones on the fringes too old to get playing time for the II side, which is considered U-23 level. There's question about clear backup players like Jorgensen and Oczipka, though the latter has a role to fill as a home-grown player, I can't get rid of too many of those - those two are the lowest-rated players in the senior side at the moment. I'll certainly consider moving along Pami? and Sukuta-Pasu, they're simply not going to break in to the lineup more regularly and deserve a shot at starting somewhere - Pami? in particular has an international career ahead of him with Croatia to consider, and another manager might not be as eager as I have to include him in the mix if he's not playing regularly. Bradley is another who maybe could be let move on, if he wants to. 24-25 would be a decent number. The fly in the ointment is... I don't want to leave the club, plus myself if I stay, in the lurch if some of the top players get tempted by other clubs. It's not an unreasonable concern: Derdiyok seemed interested when it was rumored Barcelona as after him, for example, and he's not the only one. Everybody's under contract, but forcing players to stay when they really want to go isn't a good situation. I don't think anyone around the club should try to leave for the "bigger club" claim any longer, we've won the European Champions Cup two years running, and were in the final the year before that... are you going to do better than that?
Season Statistics
Rating: Walker 7.50, Derdiyok 7.44, Sandro 7.39, Troost 7.36, Botia 7.33, Kadlec 7.32
Goals: Kiessling 31, Derdiyok 30, Sandro 11, Sukuta-Pasu 10, Fernandez 10, Troost 9
Assists: Derdiyok 11, Fernandez 11, Troost 10, Castro 10, Bustos 9, Kadlec 9
Appearances (starts): Kiessling 46 (36), Schürrle 45 (37), Vida 44 (41), Adler 43 (43), Botia 43 (42), Derdiyok 41 (38)
Passing: Vazquez 87%, Bender 84%, Bradley 83%, Adler 83%, Sam 82%.
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We've clearly been a bit more aggressive - 36 yellow cards, in the league, up from last year's 22. We're joint 17th in that category, only Werder Bremen had fewer at 34. We had 34 goals from set plays, back up to more a level I expect - that's one per game. Kaiserslautern has 22, Hoffenheim 21, Bayern 20, HSV, Werder Bremen and Schalke all 19.
Final Table
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Finances
For the month we did €69.2m, including €37.5m in prize money, which clearly dwarfs any other month of the season. As a side effect, though, we also pay out €16.9m in bonuses, which helps drive our expenditure to €30.45m, way up from last month as well (€10.12m). So the monthly profit is €38.75, and the year to date is €72.3m. It can't be compared to last year, because there was a big expense for the stadium expansion then. We're not quite done for the year, as there will be some more outlay to wages and other non-match operating expenses, and we'll end with paying out to the shareholders. Good year though, and it leaves us rather firmly placed as the 5th richest club at €328m - that's €77m behind At.Madrid and €13m ahead of Man United.
League Summary
ECC 1. Leverkusen 94, 2. Bayern 74, 3. Stuttgart 62, 4. Schalke
EC 5. HSV 53, 6. Hoffenheim 52, 7. Gladbach 51
Relegated: Bielefeld, Frankfurt
Promoted: Furth, Aachen
Top Scorer: Babacar (Bayern) 26, Derdiyok 20, Guilherme (Dortmund) 20, Kiessling 19
Assists: Kroos (Bayern) 17
Rating: Babacar (Bayern) 7.54
Around Europe
English Premier
ECC: 1. Arsenal 81 +42, 2. Chelsea 81 +35, 3. Man City 78, 4. Man Utd 74
Euro: 5. Aston Villa 73, Sunderland (FA Cup winner, lge 9th), Everton (Lge Cup winner, lge 12th)
Rel: Sheff Utd, Southampton, Bristol City
Prom: Burnley, Huddersfield, Leicester
Top Scorers: Tevez (Man City) 29, Rooney (Man Utd) 23, Kalinic (Chelsea) 21
Spanish Liga:
ECC: 1. At.Madrid 88, 2. Valencia 81, 3. R.Madrid 74, 4. Sevilla 71
EC: 5. Barcelona 65, 6. Athletic 60 +11, 7. Racing 60 +0, Getafe (Spanish Cup winner), 9th lge)
Rel: Hercules, Gimnastic, Tenerife
Prom: Mallorca, Recreativo, Albacete
Top Scorers: Llorent (Athletic) 29, Galvan (Racing) 23), Pato (At.Madrid) 20, Ronaldo (R.Madrid) 20
Italy Serie A:
ECC: 1. Napoli 80, 2. Genoa 77, 3. Roma 71 +33, 4. Palermo 71 +22
EC: 5. Juventus 66, 6. AC Milan 62, Fiorentina (Cup winner, lge 49)
Inter missed out though level on pts with AC Milan
Rel: Siena, Vicenza, Padova
Prom: Crotone, Ascoli, Livorno
Top Scorers: Vucinic (Roma) 19, Lavezzi (Napoli) 19, Immobile (Cagliari) 19, Stuani (Torino) 18, Hulk (Inter) 18
France:
ECC: 1. PSG 74, 2. Girondins Bordeaux 74, 3. OL 70 +28
EC: 4. OM 70 +24, Lille (Coupe winner, 6th lge), Auxerre (French Cup winner, 14th lge)
Top Scorers: Carmona (Guingamp) 22, Mori (Saint-Etienne) 20, Mendes da Graca (Bordeaux) 18
Rel: Sedan Ardennes, USBCO, Chateauroux (last year's promotion list!)
Prom: Toulouse FC, Bastia, Stade Brestois 29
Portugal:
ECC: 1. Benfica 70, 2. Porto 62
EC: 3. Sporting 57, 4. Vit.Guimaraes 53, 5. Braga 50, 6. Maritimo 50
Rel: Academica, Olhanense
Prom: Freamunde, Olivierense
Top Scorers: Baba (Maritimo) 19, Zildovic (Portimonenese) 14
Scotland
ECC: 1. Celtic 83, 2. Hibernian 79 (79 was last year's winning total)
EC: 3. Hearts 69, 4. Motherwell 55, 5. Dunfermline 50
Rel: Partick Thistle (only one win! 1-8-29)
Prom: Hamilton
Top Scorers: Griffiths (Dundee) 21, Megginson (Aberdeen) 19, Hooper (Celtic) 18, Graham (Dunfermline) 18
Another little pointless exercise I'm going to look back at former players, mine and Leverkusen's.
First Leverkusen. Some clubs have a policy that they keep an eye on former players to see if someday they ought to come back. I brought back Lars Bender on this basis, thought to be honest it hasn't been the boon I'd hoped.
Players who were there before me:
Diego Contento (loan 2010 , Bayern) - backup player at Palermo for a year after some time at Cologne
Federico Macheda (loan 2010 , ManU) - unused at Spurs (after signing for 15m)
Christian Eriksen (loan 2010 , Ajax) - played well at OL in rotation for 2 yrs, now a year at Getafe, value (and performance) has dropped
Tranquillo Barnetta (to Arsenal 2010) - decent player at Bolton after leaving Arsenal after 4 yrs
Arturo Vidal (to Zenit 2010) - standout at OM after superb at Zenit, out of our price range
Simon Rolfes (to OL 2010) - fallen to reserves at age 34
Stefan Reinartz (to Valencia 2011) - injury-ruined season was his worst since leaving
Daniel Schwaab (to Valencia 2011) - has completed five superb seasons at Valencia, but we already have Castro and Walker at his position with youngsters in the wings
Milovan Pekic (to ManU 2012) - made no mark at United in one year, okay on loan in League 1 at MK Dons the next, back in Germany at 3rd Div Erfurt where he was excellent (still only 21)
Players I saw, then sold or let go:
Junior Moraes (to Hercules 2013) - stellar in their promotion season, good the next year in La Liga, just finished year at Zaragoza with 14 goals
Hanno Balitsch (Koblenz 2013) - playing well at low-league Braunschweig, he's 35
Jens Hegeler (Bielfeld 2013) - regular player, but wasn't quite good enough for us then, and nothing has changed
Burak Kaplan (Espanyol Jan 2014) - last two seasons decent, but he's a poor passer in a league that values good passers (as do we)
Renato Augusto (Barcelona Jan 2014) - an intriguing prospect. At the time Barca was clearly the bigger, more glamorous club. We've made a lot of progress since. He cost Barca €27.5m and has been excellent, but they keep bringing in midfielders - Fabregas and Moutinho last year, Marin this year, plus some more youngsters. Do they actually need him? Indications are he wouldn't mind a return.
Then Hibernian. This exercise is just one of looking back to see what happened, most of these players were not at a high enough level to join Leverkusen or a similar top club.
Colin Nish is 35, toiling as a backup for Bournemouth after 2 yrs at St Mirren
John Rankin has had an OK time at Motherwell, now an infrequent player
Graeme Smith toils as the #2 keeper for Bristol, which has made the EPL, he was their regular keeper for two years after a year at Derby
Kevin McBride has gone into coaching
Sol Bamba has been decent at Maritimo for two years, his move to Porto was not a great one for him, he never broke in as a regular and was sold after 3 yrs. Hard to tell as a player, isn't it?
Barry Douglas went to Nottm. Forest, after two relegations he moved on to Sunderland mid-season 2013 in likely a financial move, and has been a decent starter in the Prem for 2.5 years now.
Kevin McCann is still in Scotland, stints at Kilmarnock and St Mirren.
Francis Dickoh made a fee move to Sunderland in the Prem, where he didn't play; in Germany with Osnabruck for three years, and at 33, it's not going to get any better.
Edwin de Graff is in coaching
Thiago went to Stade Rennais, where he's made only a minor impact, 36 league games in four years, at 25 he should be at his peak now. This is a player who ought to have developed into more, disappointing.
Jean-Alain Fanchone is toiling for Atalanta, he's been a good player for four seasons in Serie A
Pavel Rebane went to Schalke and still hasn't really broken into the senior team. At 22, he's not developed some of the skills we expected at Hibs, though he still has superb pace, and they say strikers peak at 27 or so.
Jeffry Monokana, a youth "project" after not making it at Arsenal, has bounced around: he left for Hull City, had loans at Ross County, Brentford and Northampton, making a major impact at the latter - which was the lowest level, England L2. He's just finished first year at Doncaster (Eng. Championship).
Ross Bradley, a young defender, went to West Ham, they were relegated and then after a year he was sold to Stoke, he had an unproductive loan at Huddersfield this last year, but is still the property of the Prem side Stoke.
Marijn Troost is with Leverkusen now, a good player hoping to break in to the first XI if only Kiessling will get old a little faster
In the 2013/14 season, most of the rest of the players I knew went out...
Derek Riordan is out of football
James Dunn is tending the nets for Alloa in the 2nd division
Callum Burns has moved on to Arbroath where he's been a three-season starter
Liam Miller has been an important player at Notts Co as his career winds down; they've slipped to Eng. L2 now.
Scott Taggart went then to Derry City, then on to Sligo Rovers where he'd had a happy loan year, and now Fingal.
Matthew Welch is out of football after leaving for Macclesfield - too bad, I think he had more to offer.
David Wotherspoon moved to Bolton, where he's failed to become a regular, another move that probably was ill-considered, but I think he'd fallen out of favor in the Coyle system at Hibernian so maybe he didn't think staying had any value.
Hernan Lo Monaco, my first foray into signing Argentine players, secured a move to Liverpool. He was loaned back to Velez Sarsfield in Argentina for a year where he was dominant; still trying to break in at Liverpool though.
Juhani Ojala moved to Espanyol, which was a bust; he moved on to Sporting in Portugal where he's been at least a decent player. Again... he was superb at Hibernian where I think he was at just the right level for his skills, the moves later have not helped his career.
Omar Koroma ended up in Finland at HJK where after his third season he'd evolved enough to get a move to Germany with Union Berlin - but that's a low league side.
Dialo Guidileye, one of my French signings, had at least advanced his career: he wnt to Bristol City in the Prem, had a decent loan year at Watford in the Champ., then returned to become a starter at Bristol - but they have just been relegated, so who knows what comes next.
In the following season, most of the rest of the churn happened,
Ian Murray, now 35, headed for Eng. L1 Rotherham where he's had two very good seasons.
Paul Hanlon got a big-ish money move (for Hibs, 4m GBP is big) to Blackburn in the EPL where he's been a rotation player/backup for a mid-table side.
Callum Booth, who never got a clear role anywhere, moved to Dundee United, didn't make a big impact, and had year another loaned, to Nottm Forest, where he didn't make a big impact. He's been out on loan more than he's been at the two clubs which have owned his contract.
Jonathan Owusu has been one of the finds of the bunch; we got him for 5k, he hadn't worked his way in anywhere except a loan to Cyprus (Omonoia), yet in August 2014 he got a transfer to Liverpool where after a season learning to fit in, last year he suddenly emerged as probably 'Pool's defensive midfielder of the future - he outplayed incumbents Fernando and Lucas, with the former now transfer listed.
Daniel Galbraith left that January for Fulham where he's made limited impact so far, but it's not clear he won't surpass the older Ludovic Baal.
This season there were only two other players I had worked with,
Pedro Santos, a young defender that to be honest was brought in (like Koroma and some others) when we needed decent bodies and had no budget for really talented ones, moved on the the 2nd division Spanish club Ceuta, where he's done well although they've been relegated. Hope he gets another move; seems like he'll do okay in his native Spain if things fall correctly on the contract front.
Zacharie Boucher has taken a move to Rubin Kazan. I don't like it so much for him, but Rubin are often in the Champions Cup, so there's at least visibility.
Players left at Hibernian from my days are:
Mark Brown - the goalkeeper before and after; 36 league games in 2010, 17 in 2011, 3/0/0 the next three (due to Boucher taking all the starts in those Owen Coyle-managed years), 38 this past season.
Chris Hogg - the defender who joined back in 2005, a decade later he's not a regular player any longer, but he's a leader and extra-reliable, never seems to miss time to injury.
Sean Welsh - the right back is the captain now, a short loan at Stoke City a couple of years ago seems to have instilled something extra in him.
Lewis Stevenson - a player with skills but who didn't seem to have a clear position has continued to struggle for playing time, and this past season was definitely a bit player, getting in only one league game, six total, that's not really fair in my opinion
Callum McRobbie - a regular striker the last two seasons, though somehow he doesn't seem to have turned into the SPL force that we expected and lost ground this year - 19 starts (31 all comps) and 13 goals (23 all comps) last year; this year 11 starts (23 subs; 18 starts overall) and 5 goals (10 overall).
Danny Swanson I hired but he never played for me; he's never cracked Coyle's regular first-XI setup
Garry O'Connor - has to rank as one of, if not "the", best signing of mine ever; this was a case of looking for former Hibs players who could come back, but it had to be cheap at the time. He was free, in five seasons he has 83 league goals, 107 all comps. He's never going to catch the all time league goals leader for Hibs, though - Gordon Smith had 364.
Monthly Results
Bayer Leverkusen 3-0 VfL Wolfsburg (Bradley 72, 90, Sukuta-Pasu 76) Eintracht Frankfurt 1-4 Bayer Leverkusen (Rosenthal 14 - Botia 18, Derdiyok 21, 28, 65) Bayer Leverkusen 3-0 FC Bayern München (German Cup Final - Olympiastadion, Berlin) (Fernandez 12, Derdiyok 53, 90+2) FC Bayern München 2-5 Bayer Leverkusen (European Champions Cup Final - Ernst-Happel Stadion, Vienna) (Cabaye 60, Babacar 83 - Fernandez 51, Derdiyok 54, 61, Bustos 84, Kiessling 86)Match: Bayer Leverkusen - VfL Wolfsburg
Score: 3-0 (Bradley 72, 90, Sukuta-Pasu 76)
League Position: 1st (winner)
Summary: For the first quarter hour, Wolfsburg dominate, and it looked like Drenthe had put Wolfsburg ahead in the 16th, but he was flagged offside - it was pretty close but we must trust the officials, right?
Except when the call goes against us! We had so much trouble getting into the game that our first real chance comes in the 45th minute, started by Sandro pinching a pass and starting the attack, then Bradley and Kadlec knocking it back and forth on the left until they get Kadlec clear for a cross, headed by Derdiyok from just inside the penalty spot, but not quite on target. The ref saw a deflection, but w did nothing with the corner. The second half opens in a more positive fashion, and Bradley's whizzed a shot past the post in the 47th. It looks like we've carved them open for Derdiyok, but he's flagged offside - very close (with the whistle blowing I won't blame him for not scoring it). Adler called into action shortly after. The next patch is us fending off Wolfsburg forays, fortunately their entry pass isn't finding anything but red shirts. Bradley fires again, right at the keeper, Bradley looking very lively. Unhappy with Derdiyok and Kiessling's contributions, I've given them the hook in favor of Mares and Sukuta-Pasu, with the latter creating a chance pretty quickly. A goal finally comes when Bradley dumps a pass off in midfield and continues his run, with Wolfsburg asleep he's eventually found by Sukuta-Pasu and completely clear, he scores, 72 minutes in! Bradley's picked out Sukuta-Pasu with a positive pass into space, and he scores. At there very end there's one more - Bradley starts a rush, Sukuta-Pasu takes it wide left and pretty much only Leverkusen have made the run with him, it's four red shirts in the box and one defender, once the pass comes in Bradley scores it easily. Odd one, this. Yes it was in the meaningless category but I was still very grumpy at the poor performance almost throughout. I'm hard pressed to remember a home match where we've let the other side have 59% of the ball, and when we're playing well, we win lots of corners - attacking intent putting the other side under pressure. We had one (to be fair, Wolfsburg also had only one). The substitutes did energize things, but the Bradley performance was one I really appreciated, those were excellent positive moves on both of his goals to continue runs, get clear and score, and it's the kind of "stepping up" that gets high marks, when so much else wasn't working. Not something he's known for. He's been on my tentative list to clear some space at the club, perhaps he's sensed this and put in quite a show. Certainly his statistical performance has been on an upwards trajectory, but he hasn't played that much this year. Meanwhile, Bustos had a chance to keep the argument up he should be the starting AMC, instead he performed apathetically and let his case regress, especially sad since the Argentina manager was in the audience for this one.We've scored 93 goals now for the season, which exceeds the 92 we scored is 2013/14. The points total equals what we had last year.
Chelsea had the EPL title in their own control, but have let the advantage slip: they drew at Fulham. Combined with an Arsenal home win over then #3 Aston Villa, Arsenal are now top on goal difference - and it's a big margin. An Arsenal win in Sunday's finale at #8 Wolves and the title is theirs; Chelsea host #7 Liverpool but unless Arsenal slip, even the best result won't get them the title. In the worst case, Man City could still pip them for 2nd.
It was our last home match, attended by just over 56.000. Mainz will win the title as the highest average attendance by capacity at 98%, but we've stayed in the picture despite the increased capacity. In the 13 home matches since the expanded stadium debuted on 23 December, we've had these attendances: 52.935, 52.957, 57.262, 54.565, 52.958, 52.948, 56.850, 52.957, 57.262, 55.324, 54.353, 57.262, 56.013. I think this is not bad, and I'm going to claim some credit, when I arrived we were getting crowds of 29-30.000, capacity or close to it yes, but the success has made the case for first a new stadium, then an expansion, and we've kept on filling it.
I'm still in a personal state of limbo. My contract with Leverkusen is expiring, they offered a new contract at the same rate earlier in the season, which I turned down; just a few days ago they came back with the same offer. I suggested a different number which the board "couldn't possibly accept". I hope I'm not being too out of touch with reality here, I feel like my accomplishments merit a contract on par with some of the higher profile coaches in Europe. One point is that I don't have anything really left to prove: we've ruled Germany for four years, we've been at the top level of the Champions Cup for three. That's been done while keeping a very reasonable salary structure, and bringing the success that's led to the increase in fan support noted above. That follows two years taking Hibernian to the top after years and years of frustration - and managing to build the overall club structure to the point where that success has continued. So, I could stay here to build a long-term dynasty, if properly recognized by the board, but we're going to have to spend a fair bit of money: Bayern have had to strengthen their club, and they've spent a lot of money doing so, the most notable signings being Babacar and Neymar (€60 between them in transfer fees), a well as a defender Mapou Yanga Mbiwa, who hasn't yet made an impact, for another €16m. This has brought Bayern back up to close to our level - their existing weaknesses didn't let them hold a high level for the entire league season, but it was enough to make the German cup final and European cup final, so you can see Leverkusen are about to get pushed. We have loaded up on youth prospects, but strengthening in anticipation still seems likely to be necessary. Anyway, sorry, I'm drifting: either a new challenge, or get compensated like a high profile coach. So far, Leverkusen don't seem willing to show me the right intent in this regard.
Celtic stumble, this has put Hibernian into the SPL advantage. However, the only thing now that can keep the race from being decided on the final day would be a Hibernian win over Motherwell and a Celtic loss to Falkirk on Saturday. Hibs lead by a point, Celtic are +2 as far as goal difference advantage.
Match: Eintracht Frankfurt - Bayer Leverkusen
Score: 1-4 (Rosenthal 14 - Botia 18, Derdiyok 21, 28, 65)
League Position: 1st (winner)
Summary: Final match of the season, and after two good chances from a single sequence, which we don't score on, Rosenthal has headed in a corner, cashing in on our new weakness, set piece defending. Botia returns the favor, though. Kiessling has our second shot off the woodwork. Derdiyok breaks right through the middle to score. Moments later, he heads in a corner. Four total goals inside a half hour! Frankfurt know they're going down now - there was a hope of making the playoff and maybe escaping, but we've deflated that hope and the spirit goes out, we begin to dominate. Just before the break - it's in the minute of stoppage - a deflected Fernandez shot is up in the air and Derdiyok beats the keeper to it and scores his third. Wait... very late, the referee has decided that Derdiyok in some way interfered with the keeper, so it doesn't count. Based on by view, that was dead wrong, but I'm not going to irritate the referees for no compelling reason, since this looks like a won match. Maybe a quiet word afterwards. In the 2nd, Derdiyok looks like he's sure to get the 3rd, but it glances a little funny off his head and with a very agile reaction Botia at the far post directs it in. Wait... another phantom foul on Derdiyok, now I'm getting rather irritated, there's no call to be taking our goals off the board when our players are doing nothing wrong. (On post-match replay, Derdiyok wasn't even within two yards of the player he's supposed to have fouled. The assistant, who flagged, was screened while the referee had a really clear view - why did he give it?) Fernandez feeds Derdiyok who scores... does this one count? Yes, finally it's good, and it's Derdiyok's 100th league goal. We take Derdiyok out a bit later so he can accept the cheers of the Leverkusen fans who have made the trip.
We've ended the league season with Derdiyok on 20 league goals, Kiessling with 19, not bad to have that kind of diversity. Another eight players scored between four and seven league goals - I'm really pleased there was always someone ready to step up, it's what makes for a really good side, because the designated goal-scorers do have off days, have defenders figure out how to shut them down, etc.
Hibernian take their turn to stumble to a draw and give the advantage back to Celtic, that means Celtic have the title with a win or draw, Hibernian need to win.
Chelsea's round-37 stumble to a draw at Fulham turned out to be fatal, they've lost the league title to Arsenal on goal difference, which has got to be the worst feeling in the world: what could we have done differently? Leverkusen had that feeling, the season before I arrived. In Chelsea's case, they've lost by seven goals of goal difference. They led the league with 70 scored, 10 more than Arsenal (and one more than 2nd high scorer and league #3 Man City), but conceded almost double - 35 let in to Arsenal's 18. So the answer is "we didn't defend well enough", or perhaps "we didn't concentrate enough when we had a lead" - probably a combination of both. League winner Arsenal scoring 60 in 38 matches? That doesn't sound like a respectable total for a league winner, and the Arsenal of Roberto Mancini clearly isn't much like the Arsenal of Arsene Wenger before him (Wenger retired after winning the league title in the 2011/2012 season).
Hibernian have the title in their grasp with 1-0 and 2-1 leads, but allow two late goals for Celtic to do more than they needed - a 3-2 win. Both late goals were near-post shots that the keeper Mark Brown should have stopped, Hibernian's stupidity in letting Boucher go to Zenit for a way too small a fee probably the difference between a title and second place.
We only had two loanees out, Dieye seems to have advanced his cause with plenty of action at Steaua Bucharst, where he did extremely well; Enzo Reale has not done much to enhance his reputation at Deportivo where he didn't play much and had a season without impact.
Hertha managed to sneak into the playoff spot, and enhance their chances of staying up with a 6-1 first-leg win over Oberhausen.
Match: Bayer Leverkusen - FC Bayern München (German Cup Final - Olympiastadion, Berlin)
Score: 3-0 (Fernandez 12, Derdiyok 53, 90+2)
Summary: Bayern confuse me a bit, they choose not to run out their top lineup for this, not sure why because the club needs silverware and the German Cup is a big one. After Derdiyok misses a chance in the early minutes (not an easy one, it must be said), Fernandez puts us in top with a strike on a free kick. Fernandez puts Troost through, but the easy shot is woefully wide, casting doubt on my decision to pick him for this one. Quite a bit later Fernandez has set up Troost who has a good position to chip, but it goes wide. Why didn't I choose Kiessling? Neymar's got a chip going the other way, that one's just barely wide. We've blown some more chances going into the break, and then coming out of it, even with a change in scheme (narrowing the formation and Bender in for Schürrle). Finally, Derdiyok cashes in one of the opportunities, and it's about as tough a shot as you could imagine. Adler has to tip a long bending shot wide, Bayern win a string of corners but Sandro eventually clears out the danger. It's getting to "garbage time" late, and a Sukuta-Pasu shot is deflected too close to Derdiyok who scores it - the keeper Sidibe did recover to get a hand to it but not enough. Cup win is ours, in convincing fashion.
One more to go.
There are some German awards; Kroos is footballer of the year, which isn't a horrid choice; Schürrle and Adler trail. In a much less sane competition, Wojchiech Szczesny is keeper of the year, followed by Diego Benaglio and Fabian Giefer. All of them had good years, but if Adler is 3rd for player of the year, as a keeper, how does he not make the top three for keeper of the year? More anti-Leverkusen bias. Botia and Vida do take 1st and 3rd for defender of the year, more fair. I'm second for manager of the year behind Bayern's Steve McClaren. The winning manager pretty much always gets it unless someone had a breakout year; perennial favorite Bayern finishing 20 points behind us comes nowhere near to qualifying. Botia and Derdiyok are the only two to make the first division team of the year.
Match: FC Bayern München - Bayer Leverkusen (European Champions Cup Final - Ernst-Happel Stadion, Vienna)
Score: 2-5 (Cabaye 60, Babacar 83 - Fernandez 51, Derdiyok 54, 61, Bustos 84, Kiessling 86)
Summary: Bayern run out a considerably stronger lineup for this one. Unfortunately for the fans, the weather is dismal for this final, pouring down rain. It's a half where we start very poorly, giving the ball away constantly, then gradually get better as the half goes on. Neither side mount any serious threats. That changes quickly, Babacar has too much space out front and has a good look at the goal in only the second minute after the restart, he's put it just wide though. Derdiyok works his way through but has his shot saved. Oh, what a pas by Bradley, he's found Fernandez in a pocket and the shot is true! The streaky "Matigol" has finished strong. Suddenly we've found some spacing, and Derdiyok receives, turns, and blasts home! Big danger minutes later, Fernandez free kick into the box, but Pele threads his way through bodies to snare it. Sleepy defending, a give and go with Babacar has him through, Adler gets down to save it, but the ball comes right to Cabaye who puts it in, it's not salted yet, 30 minutes to go. Oh, Fernandez has done it again, sets up Derdiyok who scores, suddenly this is a goal fest! Speaking of finishing strong, Derdiyok now has four in the two big finals. Time running down now, both sides switch multiple players around 80 minutes, in our case we had three very tired. Babacar sneaks in a shot that doesn't look like it should have beaten Adler, 3-2 now. And then one of those subs, Bustos, places a long shot at the lower left post and beats Pele, 4-2. That came out of nowhere! A little bit of keeper question on both of these two late goals. And then Bustos heads for goal, he's in the box when a tackle pokes it away but it's come into the path of Kiessling who tries to blast through the back of the net... doesn't succeed at that, but he's scored, 5-2, another big burst of scoring. We've won the Champions Cup for the second year running! After years of not seeing repeat winners - the last occurrence had been AC Milan in 1989 and 1990, it's now happened consecutively - Olympique Marseille in 2013 and 2014, Bayer Leverkusen in 2015 and 2016. What an odd game, scoreless for 50 minutes, then explodes with seven goals the rest of the way.
http://i603.photobucket.com/albums/tt116/wichmannm/fm11screens/ECCFinal16.png
We get more respect from the ECC Dream Team selectors, with six players on the list: Adler, Kadlec, Vida, Sandro, Fernandez and Derdiyok.
Quite simply: it was an utterly astonishing year. In the entire calendar we've played 54 matches that count, winning 49, drawing 3 and losing 2. The level of success got lost at times, as there was always something to worry about for next match, signs of a slump that I was trying to fight, etc. The strange things is, we ended up with two opponents we couldn't beat, although we sort of beat one of them: Hamburg handed us our only two defeats, and Juventus battled us to a pair of draws - we advanced in the competition because of the somewhat dubious away goals rule. Hamburg were a pretty good team, they've finished 5th and qualified for European competition. Similar for Juventus - 5th in Italy, and return to Europe, though that's a slip from the previous year, which earned them this visit to Europe's top competition. The final team to dent our record were Bochum, who caught us in a bad moment and battled to a draw, really we should have been good enough to get a win against what ended up the 13th placed club, although they were very proficient at earning draws - 13 of their 34 matches ended that way.
Usually at the end of the season I have to thoroughly evaluate the club and make decisions on my own status. I may have finished burning bridges at Leverkusen, having turned down their offer of a new contract several times. The issues have already been well discussed: is there enough challenge to be worth staying? Am I happy with not receiving more recognition in terms of a more lucrative contract offer? The offer has been the same as the one of four years ago, when I was coming off a pair of successful seasons in Scotland, but really hadn't proven anything in terms of longevity of success, or making headway at the top of European football. Four years later, I ought to be considered more of a proven commodity. But this year there don't seem to be vacancies at the top clubs, unlike last summer when a near-deal fell through at the last moment.
Club wise... I keep feeling like we're over-performing. This is not a club filled with big stars if you look at a world stage. Keeper Adler is probably one of the best in the world at his position, but isn't getting credit for it. My two English imports, both pinched off of Spurs who didn't seem to want them, are playing superbly. Sandro continued to evolve, and now has the strange situation that he's the best choice in the team at two positions - defensive midfielder and right midfielder. In terms of his own strongest position it's DMC but he seemed to relish a role on the right that let him get into the attack more and he potted 11 goals - a player who had a grand total of two in his five previous seasons in Europe. Kyle Walker didn't make as much impact this season, but that's due to being slowed after the turn of the year by a pair of ligament injuries, one a knee, the other an ankle. He still managed to be our top average rating player over the full season, though in the end appearing only 25 times. Meanwhile Gonzalo Castro worked hard to try and prove he should be the #1 at right back, he got into 36 matches and was only one off the team assist lead with 10. It's a glorious situation to have, but perhaps is overkill. Winning European club championships soothes a lot of the sting at not playing all the time but that may be temporary.
Continuing with the wide midfielders, Andre Schürrle is, if not world-class, certainly among the best playing in Germany. At 25 he's still young and may have more growth in him, perhaps in maturity if not in technical skills. But I'm not just totally gushing over him: he almost carried the club in the early part of the season making a tremendous impact, but then kind of faded into a more supportive role. That worked okay with the two senior forwards scoring in bunches but I could maybe have seen a bit more from him. Sidney Sam, who usually mans the right, also tailed off a bit and by the end of the year, Sandro was more often the choice here, which wasn't making Sam overjoyed. Sandro not only provided a more physical presence for those times we needed it (he's a half-foot taller and 12 kilos heavier, plus just plain a more defensively solid (and minded) player, but he provided more offensive spark on a more consistent basis. Jorgensen as a backup looked to be blossoming but his role this season faded as he didn't make much impact; youngster Biglia started to work his way into the senior side but there's clearly much that has to happen before he's ready to be a regular contributor.
In the central midfield positions, it was a mixed bag. Sandro, of course, was a special player. Youngster Nestor Vazquez showed signs he's ready to contribute regularly, and he's turned out to be one of our most accurate passers (in percentage terms, he was a fair ways clear of the pack, actually, at 87%). But there's growth that has to happen, he's got blistering pace which rarely came into play, showed some problems in discipline and concentration, and was inconsistent; he's not a good dribbler (which limits the impact of his passes because defenders know he will pass and is not great off the ball. Lars Bender was again pretty good statistically but failed to make impacts very often. Michael Bradley came on and had a good second half of the season; he had some injuries in the early part of the year which was probably partly a factor. Still, for this pair, you don't see the performances of key starters on a top-five-in-Europe club, but of squad players. I'm not sure we need to have both of them; Bender should be doing better than he is, but he retains a bit of an edge because he counts as home-grown and is a year younger. Bradley is a little more physical, though. At the attacking role, Matias Fernandez was on and off. He had two tremendous stretches of play, meaning that overall he improved on his showing last year, but not quite to the level of his first season after coming over from Sporting. He seems to have a tremendous ability to make a cutting pass, but it's kind of hit or miss situation: he also will go through long stretches where he just doesn't seem very involved. Ivan Bustos showed increasing signs that he's ready to step up, maybe push to be the starter. He had seven assists in the league, despite making only seven starts. The other two in this equation, Zvonko Pami? and Salaheddine Naciri, failed to make much impact. At least one of those two players needs to move out, we're just too crowded in midfield.
At forward it's a problem of riches: Marijn Troost is ready to be a regular starter, but how can you slot him in instead of either Eren Derdiyok (30 goals) or Stefan Kiessling (31). Kiessling still looks fresh and impressive at 32, while Derdiyok should be about at his peak years at 27. Troost managed nine goals and 10 assists while starting 15 and subbing six times (missing a total of over three months with a pair of injuries, which delayed the time of decision...). I kept saying Richard Sukuta-Pasu was disappointing, and early in the season he just didn't make a lot of impact, but in the end he's made 10 goals, 5 assists appearing only 23 times (12 starts, 11 in relief). And we've got two youngsters who are going to need some more senior appearances, Jordy Pool and Petr Mares. Mares played mainly for the reserves, which of course is a lower level, but his stat line shows 48 goals total! In fairness to Sukuta-Pasu, he should probably get a transfer to a club that will let him be a regular starter, it's not going to happen with this group of six.
The defenders are a pretty solid group. Botia anchors the line, he ought to be considered one of the best in the world. His partner is now Domagoj Vida, who's established a clear position - although he can still fill in at both fullbacks and at DMC, if needed. And youngster Mitchell Winter is pushing hard for a spot, meaning that Dante has slipped to 4th in the order, but he did choose to sign up for a new contract at lower wages. Never mind some senior leadership even if the player isn't likely to be a regular again (I similarly offered a deal to Chris Hogg at Hibernian when it didn't look like he would be a key piece, because he was a leader and still a solid defender - and then he turned out to be pretty important that season after all). There are other youngsters waiting to prove they need to be considered, mainly Bjorn Meltzer - but he doesn't seem quite ready yet and there's much competition. Already talked about right back; at left back we have Michal Kadlec and Bastian Oczipka, a pair I thought of more highly earlier in my tenure. Oczipka had his year largely ruined by a broken leg at the very end of the previous season that kept him out until November. I have a little trouble with him as the backup, because he's prone to a sudden really bad game in a string of fairly good ones. Kadlec is fine as the starter for now, but here's the position where staff thinks we're most prone to wanting an upgrade - it's the only position where we can't run out at least a 3-star (in current estimations) player. That's a slip a bit from the past, not because his skills have eroded, but because our expectations set the bar a bit higher. At 31, playing a demanding position, some falloff may not be far away though. Nothing at all in his statistical performance indicates we have any reason to be unhappy with him! It's more a case of looking to the future as maybe he starts to show some age, and considering the general principle that if you stand still you're moving backwards, because your rivals (Bayern, domestically; all the big clubs if you consider the European stage) will be striving to improve to catch up to where we've been. We have some youngsters here - Babacar Dieye has had a very productive loan spell in Bucharest, getting in a lot of games and doing well in them, even developing a scoring touch; while newer arrival Andres Traverso spent the half-season acclimatising to the club and doing extremely well in his Leverkusen II appearances. Dieye is 22, Traverso 19; Traverso will almost certainly be a way better player but needs a lot more seasoning. Unfortunately, while both are versatile defenders who can play on the left, right back is the natural position for both.
At goalkeeper, Adler is the unquestioned leader; 20 year old Peter Nowak has the potential to be almost as good, the question is whether he'll wait for the job. It's hard to imagine it will work out: he's not shown any huge liking for Adler, and at 31, Adler has a ton of years left if he doesn't get injured. However, I do tend to play my backup goalkeeper more than most managers, so hopefully he will stay motivated and hungry for another year (if I'm still here to worry about it!) and then we can just see where we stand.
So the summary of all this is, we could see some players leave to lighten congestion at the club and make the roles of key players more clear. We have right now 29 players who can be considered senior-team quality, most of the ones on the fringes too old to get playing time for the II side, which is considered U-23 level. There's question about clear backup players like Jorgensen and Oczipka, though the latter has a role to fill as a home-grown player, I can't get rid of too many of those - those two are the lowest-rated players in the senior side at the moment. I'll certainly consider moving along Pami? and Sukuta-Pasu, they're simply not going to break in to the lineup more regularly and deserve a shot at starting somewhere - Pami? in particular has an international career ahead of him with Croatia to consider, and another manager might not be as eager as I have to include him in the mix if he's not playing regularly. Bradley is another who maybe could be let move on, if he wants to. 24-25 would be a decent number. The fly in the ointment is... I don't want to leave the club, plus myself if I stay, in the lurch if some of the top players get tempted by other clubs. It's not an unreasonable concern: Derdiyok seemed interested when it was rumored Barcelona as after him, for example, and he's not the only one. Everybody's under contract, but forcing players to stay when they really want to go isn't a good situation. I don't think anyone around the club should try to leave for the "bigger club" claim any longer, we've won the European Champions Cup two years running, and were in the final the year before that... are you going to do better than that?
Season Statistics
Rating: Walker 7.50, Derdiyok 7.44, Sandro 7.39, Troost 7.36, Botia 7.33, Kadlec 7.32
Goals: Kiessling 31, Derdiyok 30, Sandro 11, Sukuta-Pasu 10, Fernandez 10, Troost 9
Assists: Derdiyok 11, Fernandez 11, Troost 10, Castro 10, Bustos 9, Kadlec 9
Appearances (starts): Kiessling 46 (36), Schürrle 45 (37), Vida 44 (41), Adler 43 (43), Botia 43 (42), Derdiyok 41 (38)
Passing: Vazquez 87%, Bender 84%, Bradley 83%, Adler 83%, Sam 82%.
http://i603.photobucket.com/albums/tt116/wichmannm/fm11screens/LeverkusenSquadEnd1516.png
We've clearly been a bit more aggressive - 36 yellow cards, in the league, up from last year's 22. We're joint 17th in that category, only Werder Bremen had fewer at 34. We had 34 goals from set plays, back up to more a level I expect - that's one per game. Kaiserslautern has 22, Hoffenheim 21, Bayern 20, HSV, Werder Bremen and Schalke all 19.
Final Table
http://i603.photobucket.com/albums/tt116/wichmannm/fm11screens/BundesligaTableEnd1516.png
Finances
For the month we did €69.2m, including €37.5m in prize money, which clearly dwarfs any other month of the season. As a side effect, though, we also pay out €16.9m in bonuses, which helps drive our expenditure to €30.45m, way up from last month as well (€10.12m). So the monthly profit is €38.75, and the year to date is €72.3m. It can't be compared to last year, because there was a big expense for the stadium expansion then. We're not quite done for the year, as there will be some more outlay to wages and other non-match operating expenses, and we'll end with paying out to the shareholders. Good year though, and it leaves us rather firmly placed as the 5th richest club at €328m - that's €77m behind At.Madrid and €13m ahead of Man United.
League Summary
ECC 1. Leverkusen 94, 2. Bayern 74, 3. Stuttgart 62, 4. Schalke
EC 5. HSV 53, 6. Hoffenheim 52, 7. Gladbach 51
Relegated: Bielefeld, Frankfurt
Promoted: Furth, Aachen
Top Scorer: Babacar (Bayern) 26, Derdiyok 20, Guilherme (Dortmund) 20, Kiessling 19
Assists: Kroos (Bayern) 17
Rating: Babacar (Bayern) 7.54
Around Europe
English Premier
ECC: 1. Arsenal 81 +42, 2. Chelsea 81 +35, 3. Man City 78, 4. Man Utd 74
Euro: 5. Aston Villa 73, Sunderland (FA Cup winner, lge 9th), Everton (Lge Cup winner, lge 12th)
Rel: Sheff Utd, Southampton, Bristol City
Prom: Burnley, Huddersfield, Leicester
Top Scorers: Tevez (Man City) 29, Rooney (Man Utd) 23, Kalinic (Chelsea) 21
Spanish Liga:
ECC: 1. At.Madrid 88, 2. Valencia 81, 3. R.Madrid 74, 4. Sevilla 71
EC: 5. Barcelona 65, 6. Athletic 60 +11, 7. Racing 60 +0, Getafe (Spanish Cup winner), 9th lge)
Rel: Hercules, Gimnastic, Tenerife
Prom: Mallorca, Recreativo, Albacete
Top Scorers: Llorent (Athletic) 29, Galvan (Racing) 23), Pato (At.Madrid) 20, Ronaldo (R.Madrid) 20
Italy Serie A:
ECC: 1. Napoli 80, 2. Genoa 77, 3. Roma 71 +33, 4. Palermo 71 +22
EC: 5. Juventus 66, 6. AC Milan 62, Fiorentina (Cup winner, lge 49)
Inter missed out though level on pts with AC Milan
Rel: Siena, Vicenza, Padova
Prom: Crotone, Ascoli, Livorno
Top Scorers: Vucinic (Roma) 19, Lavezzi (Napoli) 19, Immobile (Cagliari) 19, Stuani (Torino) 18, Hulk (Inter) 18
France:
ECC: 1. PSG 74, 2. Girondins Bordeaux 74, 3. OL 70 +28
EC: 4. OM 70 +24, Lille (Coupe winner, 6th lge), Auxerre (French Cup winner, 14th lge)
Top Scorers: Carmona (Guingamp) 22, Mori (Saint-Etienne) 20, Mendes da Graca (Bordeaux) 18
Rel: Sedan Ardennes, USBCO, Chateauroux (last year's promotion list!)
Prom: Toulouse FC, Bastia, Stade Brestois 29
Portugal:
ECC: 1. Benfica 70, 2. Porto 62
EC: 3. Sporting 57, 4. Vit.Guimaraes 53, 5. Braga 50, 6. Maritimo 50
Rel: Academica, Olhanense
Prom: Freamunde, Olivierense
Top Scorers: Baba (Maritimo) 19, Zildovic (Portimonenese) 14
Scotland
ECC: 1. Celtic 83, 2. Hibernian 79 (79 was last year's winning total)
EC: 3. Hearts 69, 4. Motherwell 55, 5. Dunfermline 50
Rel: Partick Thistle (only one win! 1-8-29)
Prom: Hamilton
Top Scorers: Griffiths (Dundee) 21, Megginson (Aberdeen) 19, Hooper (Celtic) 18, Graham (Dunfermline) 18
Another little pointless exercise I'm going to look back at former players, mine and Leverkusen's.
First Leverkusen. Some clubs have a policy that they keep an eye on former players to see if someday they ought to come back. I brought back Lars Bender on this basis, thought to be honest it hasn't been the boon I'd hoped.
Players who were there before me:
Diego Contento (loan 2010 , Bayern) - backup player at Palermo for a year after some time at Cologne
Federico Macheda (loan 2010 , ManU) - unused at Spurs (after signing for 15m)
Christian Eriksen (loan 2010 , Ajax) - played well at OL in rotation for 2 yrs, now a year at Getafe, value (and performance) has dropped
Tranquillo Barnetta (to Arsenal 2010) - decent player at Bolton after leaving Arsenal after 4 yrs
Arturo Vidal (to Zenit 2010) - standout at OM after superb at Zenit, out of our price range
Simon Rolfes (to OL 2010) - fallen to reserves at age 34
Stefan Reinartz (to Valencia 2011) - injury-ruined season was his worst since leaving
Daniel Schwaab (to Valencia 2011) - has completed five superb seasons at Valencia, but we already have Castro and Walker at his position with youngsters in the wings
Milovan Pekic (to ManU 2012) - made no mark at United in one year, okay on loan in League 1 at MK Dons the next, back in Germany at 3rd Div Erfurt where he was excellent (still only 21)
Players I saw, then sold or let go:
Junior Moraes (to Hercules 2013) - stellar in their promotion season, good the next year in La Liga, just finished year at Zaragoza with 14 goals
Hanno Balitsch (Koblenz 2013) - playing well at low-league Braunschweig, he's 35
Jens Hegeler (Bielfeld 2013) - regular player, but wasn't quite good enough for us then, and nothing has changed
Burak Kaplan (Espanyol Jan 2014) - last two seasons decent, but he's a poor passer in a league that values good passers (as do we)
Renato Augusto (Barcelona Jan 2014) - an intriguing prospect. At the time Barca was clearly the bigger, more glamorous club. We've made a lot of progress since. He cost Barca €27.5m and has been excellent, but they keep bringing in midfielders - Fabregas and Moutinho last year, Marin this year, plus some more youngsters. Do they actually need him? Indications are he wouldn't mind a return.
Then Hibernian. This exercise is just one of looking back to see what happened, most of these players were not at a high enough level to join Leverkusen or a similar top club.
Colin Nish is 35, toiling as a backup for Bournemouth after 2 yrs at St Mirren
John Rankin has had an OK time at Motherwell, now an infrequent player
Graeme Smith toils as the #2 keeper for Bristol, which has made the EPL, he was their regular keeper for two years after a year at Derby
Kevin McBride has gone into coaching
Sol Bamba has been decent at Maritimo for two years, his move to Porto was not a great one for him, he never broke in as a regular and was sold after 3 yrs. Hard to tell as a player, isn't it?
Barry Douglas went to Nottm. Forest, after two relegations he moved on to Sunderland mid-season 2013 in likely a financial move, and has been a decent starter in the Prem for 2.5 years now.
Kevin McCann is still in Scotland, stints at Kilmarnock and St Mirren.
Francis Dickoh made a fee move to Sunderland in the Prem, where he didn't play; in Germany with Osnabruck for three years, and at 33, it's not going to get any better.
Edwin de Graff is in coaching
Thiago went to Stade Rennais, where he's made only a minor impact, 36 league games in four years, at 25 he should be at his peak now. This is a player who ought to have developed into more, disappointing.
Jean-Alain Fanchone is toiling for Atalanta, he's been a good player for four seasons in Serie A
Pavel Rebane went to Schalke and still hasn't really broken into the senior team. At 22, he's not developed some of the skills we expected at Hibs, though he still has superb pace, and they say strikers peak at 27 or so.
Jeffry Monokana, a youth "project" after not making it at Arsenal, has bounced around: he left for Hull City, had loans at Ross County, Brentford and Northampton, making a major impact at the latter - which was the lowest level, England L2. He's just finished first year at Doncaster (Eng. Championship).
Ross Bradley, a young defender, went to West Ham, they were relegated and then after a year he was sold to Stoke, he had an unproductive loan at Huddersfield this last year, but is still the property of the Prem side Stoke.
Marijn Troost is with Leverkusen now, a good player hoping to break in to the first XI if only Kiessling will get old a little faster
In the 2013/14 season, most of the rest of the players I knew went out...
Derek Riordan is out of football
James Dunn is tending the nets for Alloa in the 2nd division
Callum Burns has moved on to Arbroath where he's been a three-season starter
Liam Miller has been an important player at Notts Co as his career winds down; they've slipped to Eng. L2 now.
Scott Taggart went then to Derry City, then on to Sligo Rovers where he'd had a happy loan year, and now Fingal.
Matthew Welch is out of football after leaving for Macclesfield - too bad, I think he had more to offer.
David Wotherspoon moved to Bolton, where he's failed to become a regular, another move that probably was ill-considered, but I think he'd fallen out of favor in the Coyle system at Hibernian so maybe he didn't think staying had any value.
Hernan Lo Monaco, my first foray into signing Argentine players, secured a move to Liverpool. He was loaned back to Velez Sarsfield in Argentina for a year where he was dominant; still trying to break in at Liverpool though.
Juhani Ojala moved to Espanyol, which was a bust; he moved on to Sporting in Portugal where he's been at least a decent player. Again... he was superb at Hibernian where I think he was at just the right level for his skills, the moves later have not helped his career.
Omar Koroma ended up in Finland at HJK where after his third season he'd evolved enough to get a move to Germany with Union Berlin - but that's a low league side.
Dialo Guidileye, one of my French signings, had at least advanced his career: he wnt to Bristol City in the Prem, had a decent loan year at Watford in the Champ., then returned to become a starter at Bristol - but they have just been relegated, so who knows what comes next.
In the following season, most of the rest of the churn happened,
Ian Murray, now 35, headed for Eng. L1 Rotherham where he's had two very good seasons.
Paul Hanlon got a big-ish money move (for Hibs, 4m GBP is big) to Blackburn in the EPL where he's been a rotation player/backup for a mid-table side.
Callum Booth, who never got a clear role anywhere, moved to Dundee United, didn't make a big impact, and had year another loaned, to Nottm Forest, where he didn't make a big impact. He's been out on loan more than he's been at the two clubs which have owned his contract.
Jonathan Owusu has been one of the finds of the bunch; we got him for 5k, he hadn't worked his way in anywhere except a loan to Cyprus (Omonoia), yet in August 2014 he got a transfer to Liverpool where after a season learning to fit in, last year he suddenly emerged as probably 'Pool's defensive midfielder of the future - he outplayed incumbents Fernando and Lucas, with the former now transfer listed.
Daniel Galbraith left that January for Fulham where he's made limited impact so far, but it's not clear he won't surpass the older Ludovic Baal.
This season there were only two other players I had worked with,
Pedro Santos, a young defender that to be honest was brought in (like Koroma and some others) when we needed decent bodies and had no budget for really talented ones, moved on the the 2nd division Spanish club Ceuta, where he's done well although they've been relegated. Hope he gets another move; seems like he'll do okay in his native Spain if things fall correctly on the contract front.
Zacharie Boucher has taken a move to Rubin Kazan. I don't like it so much for him, but Rubin are often in the Champions Cup, so there's at least visibility.
Players left at Hibernian from my days are:
Mark Brown - the goalkeeper before and after; 36 league games in 2010, 17 in 2011, 3/0/0 the next three (due to Boucher taking all the starts in those Owen Coyle-managed years), 38 this past season.
Chris Hogg - the defender who joined back in 2005, a decade later he's not a regular player any longer, but he's a leader and extra-reliable, never seems to miss time to injury.
Sean Welsh - the right back is the captain now, a short loan at Stoke City a couple of years ago seems to have instilled something extra in him.
Lewis Stevenson - a player with skills but who didn't seem to have a clear position has continued to struggle for playing time, and this past season was definitely a bit player, getting in only one league game, six total, that's not really fair in my opinion
Callum McRobbie - a regular striker the last two seasons, though somehow he doesn't seem to have turned into the SPL force that we expected and lost ground this year - 19 starts (31 all comps) and 13 goals (23 all comps) last year; this year 11 starts (23 subs; 18 starts overall) and 5 goals (10 overall).
Danny Swanson I hired but he never played for me; he's never cracked Coyle's regular first-XI setup
Garry O'Connor - has to rank as one of, if not "the", best signing of mine ever; this was a case of looking for former Hibs players who could come back, but it had to be cheap at the time. He was free, in five seasons he has 83 league goals, 107 all comps. He's never going to catch the all time league goals leader for Hibs, though - Gordon Smith had 364.
Bayer Leverkusen 3-3 Shalke 04 (Kiessling 26, 68, Bruma o.g. 45+2 - Lodeiro 23, Chermiti 84, Bruma 90+3)
Borussia Mönchengladbach 1-0 Bayer Leverkusen (Mlapa 7) 
