Bundesliga
Aleix García inspires Leverkusen to winning start
As the final Bundesliga team to kick-off their pre-season, champions Bayer Leverkusen made us wait, but it was certainly worth it.
The invincible double winners defeated third tier side Rot-Weiss Essen 2-1 at the Stadion an der Hafenstraße, bringing 2000 fans and plenty of entertainment.
All four of their summer signings, Aleix García, Jeanuel Belocian, Martin Terrier and Andrea Natali got a run out, with the former trio all starting, but it was García who stole the headlines.
Signed from LaLiga’s surprise outfit Girona, the midfielder already showed he’s got the hallmarks of head coach Xabi Alonso by bossing the midfield and creating the kind of tempo that made Die Werkself the story of last season in European football. With Leverkusen requiring some extra penetration to take the lead with a minute to go in the first-half, it was their new Spaniard who sent a clever pass through almost the entirety of Essen’s team, causing chaos in the box as a botched clearance ended up with Nathan Tella, who showed no sign of rust as he finished from the tightest of angles.
Leverkusen could have had four or five in the first half, and in the second it was once again down to García to get things going. Out of position on the left hand side of the box, the 27-year-old floated in another ball impossible to defend, and it ended up in the back of the net. Patrik Schick, who was running onto the cross, was officially awarded the goal, but García’s celebration, and Schick’s lack of, suggested the new signing may well have got his first goal as a Leverkusen player.
The final minute of the match saw Essen’s Leonardo Vonic cut the deficit, but there would be no stopping García taking the narrative on his debut. Posting on social media after the game, he wrote: "This is just getting started," and that's a pretty good sign.
Due to Euro 2024 and the Copa America, Alonso was without Florian Wirtz, Jonathan Tah, Robert Andrich, Granit Xhaka, Exequiel Palacios, Alejandro Grimaldo, Jeremie Frimpong and Piero Hincapié. However, even without eight first team regulars, this was another example that no matter what you throw at Alonso’s Leverkusen, his methods always shine through.