The Werkself collected 63 points in the end. The fact that total was 'only' good enough to qualify for the Europa League is primarily down to the strong competition this term. Since the introduction of three points for a win in 1996, 63 points has always been enough to finish in the top four. The points return is also the best for the Werkself in a season for seven years: In 2012/13, the Black and Reds finished in third place on 65 points.
Bayer 04 only picked up more points (39) in the second half of the season in 1999/2000 than in the recently completed Bundesliga campaign the total of 35 also being achieved in 1996/97 and 2010/11. In the first four weeks after the winter break, the Werkself picked up a lot of points with eight wins out of ten league games.
Goals guaranteed with games involving Bayer 04. The team led by head coach Peter Bosz only failed to score once in the second half of the season in a 2-0 defeat against Hertha Berlin on matchday 33. And the Black and Reds scored 15 more goals (38) than in the first half of the season (23).
Bayer 04 have often been the first out of the blocks this season: Kevin Volland and Co. scored 14 goals in the first 15 minutes, second only to the perennial champions FC Bayern on 18. Although Leverkusen did score the most goals in the final 15 minutes: Werkself fans were able to celebrate goals 17 times in the closing stages of league matches.
The Bayer 04 players covered a distance of 4,055 kilometres (an average of 119.3 kilometres per game) in 2019/20 and they put in the most running of any team in the Bundesliga. The 129.4 kilometres on matchday 11 in the 2-0 away win at Wolfsburg was a record for the season.
Peter Bosz' possession-based approach is reflected in the numbers: His team had an average of 65% possession this season – only the champions from Munich were better (66%). The Werkself also had the third best passing accuracy this season (87%).
The Black and Reds definitely did not have to rely on one striker: A total of 15 different players got their name on the scoresheet and you have to go back to the 2002/03 season to find more Werkself players (17) scoring in a Bundesliga campaign.
The Bosz team proved to be unpredictable in front of the opposition goal. 24 goals were scored with the left foot and the same number with the right. And there were also eight headed goals to celebrate.
After six and a half years, Exequiel Palacios is leaving the Bundesliga and moving from Bayer 04 to the Premier League. The Argentine, who as a Werkself player won the World Cup with his national team four years ago and finished as runners-up at this summer’s tournament, will play for newly promoted English side Ipswich Town with immediate effect. The 27-year-old, whose contract in Leverkusen was due to run until 30 June 2030, joined Bayer 04 in January 2020 as a promising young talent. He steadily developed into one of the best defensive midfielders in the German top flight.
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When Exequiel Palacios moved from the Argentinian club River Plate to Bayer Leverkusen on 1 January 2020, the then 21-year-old could not have imagined just how successful the next six and a half years would be for him. Pala, as he is known, had already won the Copa Libertadores – the most prestigious competition in South American club football – with River Plate. But there were still so many more trophies to come.
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To mark Exequiel Palacios’s departure, we’ve put together a compilation of the midfielder’s finest and most important goals from his six-and-a-half years at the club.
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Newly promoted SV 07 Elversberg will begin the 2026/27 season as Bundesliga club number 59. The Saarland club start their first Bundesliga campaign at home to the Werkself on Saturday, 29 August (kick-off 15:30 CEST) at the URSAPHARM Arena on Kaiserlinde, which is currently being rebuilt. For one Leverkusen player in the ‘Elv’ line-up, the clash will be a special reunion. The lowdown on our next opponents.
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