Leverkusen Beats Bochum 5-0 to Extend 50-Game Unbeaten Run 

Leverkusen supporters celebrate the team being 50 matches unbeaten in all competitions this season after the German Bundesliga soccer match between VfL Bochum and Bayer Leverkusen in Bochum, Germany, 12 May 2024. (EPA)
Leverkusen supporters celebrate the team being 50 matches unbeaten in all competitions this season after the German Bundesliga soccer match between VfL Bochum and Bayer Leverkusen in Bochum, Germany, 12 May 2024. (EPA)
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Leverkusen Beats Bochum 5-0 to Extend 50-Game Unbeaten Run 

Leverkusen supporters celebrate the team being 50 matches unbeaten in all competitions this season after the German Bundesliga soccer match between VfL Bochum and Bayer Leverkusen in Bochum, Germany, 12 May 2024. (EPA)
Leverkusen supporters celebrate the team being 50 matches unbeaten in all competitions this season after the German Bundesliga soccer match between VfL Bochum and Bayer Leverkusen in Bochum, Germany, 12 May 2024. (EPA)

Bayer Leverkusen erased memories of its last defeat almost a year ago by beating Bochum 5-0 away in the Bundesliga to stretch its unbeaten start to the season to 50 games across all competitions.

Sunday’s win atoned for Leverkusen’s 3-0 loss to Bochum at the same ground on the final day last season. Xabi Alonso’s team has not lost any game since – a run that has eclipsed Portuguese club Benfica’s record of 48 consecutive games unbeaten in all competitions from late 1963 to early 1965.

No other top-flight European team remained unbeaten for as long as Leverkusen, which has already wrapped up its first Bundesliga title and will play in both the German Cup and Europa League finals.

“I think already the Bundesliga – you can’t imagine how much that means for the club or the fans,” Leverkusen midfielder Robert Andrich said. “We’ll lift the trophy next week in our stadium. It’s going to be very emotional. And then we go to Dublin and we go to Berlin. We want to get two titles there and then go on vacation with the triple in our backpack.”

Leverkusen faces Italian team Atalanta in the Europa League final in Dublin on May 22, three days before it plays Kaiserslautern in the German Cup final in Berlin.

Bochum made an encouraging start Sunday but was undone by Felix Passlack’s sending off in the 15th minute for bringing down Nathan Tella, who was through on goal.

Arthur crossed for Patrik Schick to open the scoring in the 41st and there was still time before the break for Victor Boniface to tuck away a penalty awarded for Keven Schlotterbeck’s foul on Tella.

A young Bochum supporter in the stands struggled to contain his tears. The home team needed a point to be sure of Bundesliga survival.

Leverkusen controlled the game without too much exertion. Amine Adli scored, then set up the next for Josip Stanišić, who set up the next for Álex Grimaldo.

Leverkusen took its league tally to 87 points with one round remaining, while Bochum remains three points above the relegation zone before its final game at Werder Bremen next weekend.

TUCHEL’S FAREWELL

Lovro Zvonarek scored minutes into his first Bundesliga start to help injury-hit Bayern Munich beat Wolfsburg 2-0 in Thomas Tuchel’s last home game in charge.

The 19-year-old Zvonarek fired in for Bayern off the far post in the fourth minute, and Leon Goretzka grabbed the second goal nine minutes later.

Bayern threatened to run riot despite the absence of injured forwards Harry Kane, Jamal Musiala, Leroy Sané, Serge Gnabry and Kingsley Coman. Wolfsburg’s defense regrouped as Bayern’s intensity dropped.

Tuchel, who agreed in February to leave after the season, was able to take off goalkeeper Manuel Neuer with some 15 minutes remaining. Neuer was making his 500th Bundesliga appearance.

Swedish defender Matteo Vinlöf went on at the same time for his Bayern debut, and Zvonarek went off in the 90th for the 18-year-old Jonathan Asp-Jensen to make his debut.

Hoffenheim routed relegated Darmstadt 6-0 in the early game.

St. Pauli clinched promotion from the second division.



Man United Needs Near Perfect End to Season to Avoid its Worst Premier League Points Total


Manchester United's Bruno Fernandes during the English Premier League soccer match between Nottingham Forest and Manchester United at the City Ground, Nottingham, England, Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (Mike Egerton/P via AP)
Manchester United's Bruno Fernandes during the English Premier League soccer match between Nottingham Forest and Manchester United at the City Ground, Nottingham, England, Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (Mike Egerton/P via AP)
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Man United Needs Near Perfect End to Season to Avoid its Worst Premier League Points Total


Manchester United's Bruno Fernandes during the English Premier League soccer match between Nottingham Forest and Manchester United at the City Ground, Nottingham, England, Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (Mike Egerton/P via AP)
Manchester United's Bruno Fernandes during the English Premier League soccer match between Nottingham Forest and Manchester United at the City Ground, Nottingham, England, Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (Mike Egerton/P via AP)

Manchester United needs to win seven of its eight remaining Premier League games this season just to match its worst-ever points total in the modern era.

That's how bad it's got for the record 20-time English champion in a crisis-hit campaign.

“We have to get it right fast,” head coach Ruben Amorim said after Tuesday's 1-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest.

United’s lowest points total since the Premier League began in 1992 was 58 in the 2021-22 season. It is currently on 37, with 24 more points to play for, The AP news reported.

Seven wins would give Amorim’s team the 21 points needed to reach 58.

To put that in context, United has not won back-to-back games in the league all season. The last time it managed that was in the final two games of the previous campaign.

Amorim, meanwhile, has only won six and lost nine of his 19 league games since taking over in November. United has won 10 in total.

New lows The loss to Forest was United's 13th in the league this term. Last year's total of 14 defeats was the club's worst in the Premier League era.

Amorim said in January that this might be the worst team in United's history and things have only got worse since then.

While there is little danger this season of one of the world's most storied teams being relegated from the top flight for the first time since 1974, it will almost certainly hit new lows in the modern era.

United's lowest league position in the Premier League was the eighth-place finish overseen by former manager Erik ten Hag last year. It seems unlikely Amorim will be able to better that, with his team eight points below eighth-place Fulham.

Based on form, the likelier scenario is United finishes the season even lower than it already is, with Tottenham, Everton and West Ham all within touching distance.

Years of decline This season continues United's onfield decline since managerial great Alex Ferguson retired in 2013 after winning the club's last league title.

It was his and United's 13th championship of the first 20 years of the Premier League. The club hasn't won another since.

Its lowest finish in the Premier League under Ferguson was third.

Goal drought Among United's many problems this season have been a lack of goals. The Forest game was the 11th time it has failed to score in the league - prompting a desperate Amorim to play center back Harry Maguire in attack as he went in search of a late equalizer.

Maguire came closer than any of his teammates to scoring when seeing a stoppage time effort cleared off the line.

“We deserved more in this game, that is clear, but it was our fault. We need to be better in the last third," Amorim said.

Rasmus Hojlund, a striker signed from Atalanta for $82 million last season, has only scored eight goals in his 41 games in all competitions this term.

Strike partner Joshua Zirkzee has scored six in 45 appearances. United has scored 37 in the league all season with a goal difference of minus-4.

Amorim, however, insists he sees improvement.

“I don’t lie to myself," he said. "Everybody can say whatever they want to say, I see some things, but we need to win games.”