Sports News | Xabi Alonso Celebrates Record 4-0 Win on Leverkusen Debut
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Berlin, Oct 8 (AP) The biggest ever win for a Leverkusen coach on his Bundesliga debut.
Xabi Alonso steered Bayer Leverkusen to 4-0 over Schalke on his top-level coaching debut on Saturday, the team earning just its second league win of the season.
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“I'm very satisfied. We wanted to play a good game and I think the players enjoyed it,” said Alonso, who had only two days to work with the team. “I'm satisfied, but it's only one game, we have to keep going. We have to work hard every day.”
Moussa Diaby scored one goal and set up two more for Leverkusen to move out of the relegation zone with its first league victory since the end of August.
Alonso – a former midfield maestro who won top honors with Spain, Liverpool, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich – was appointed on Wednesday when Leverkusen fired Gerardo Seoane, who oversaw a 2-0 loss at Porto in the Champions League the night before.
Presented on Thursday, Alonso said, “ We take a step forward here today, to have an impact, to work and to show that we can do better.”
The Leverkusen players were clearly keen to impress their new coach on Saturday. And he was very engaged on the sideline, using an early break in play to hurriedly instruct individual players. Sky TV counted him sitting for only 114 seconds for the whole game.
Alonso had to wait till the 38th minute of a hard-fought first half before Diaby broke the deadlock by letting fly from distance. It was the French forward's first league goal of the season.
Alonso celebrated briefly with his bench before turning to instruct midfielder Charles Aránguiz.
Less than three minutes later, Callum Hudson-Odoi produced a fine solo run, eluding two Schalke midfielders before feeding Diaby, who sent Jeremie Frimpong in. The Dutch right back fired inside the far post from a narrow angle.
Frimpong got his second goal in the 53rd, again set up by Diaby, who waited for the right moment before playing his pass. The goal stood despite Robert Andrich helping the ball along with his arm in the buildup.
Alonso brought on the previously out-of-favor Paulinho in the 88th and the Brazilian forward wrapped up the win with the fourth goal two minutes later.
“For me, the most important thing was that the players felt what we want to do, how we want to play. For sure, it's early days, but we're happy today and now we'll review and analyze for the next game,” Alonso said in a mixture of German and English.
Leverkusen next plays Porto for their return game on Wednesday.
Bochum won its first game of the season by 3-0 at home over Eintracht Frankfurt, Mainz held Leipzig to 1-1 and Wolfsburg drew at Augsburg 1-1.
Bayern Munich visited Borussia Dortmund for 'der Klassiker' late. (AP)
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