Season review, part one: Upturn in late Autumn with Xabi Alonso

matchdays 1-15 (to turn of the year)

Striker signed pre-season

Sporting managing director Simon Rolfes succeeded Rudi Völler at the start of the season and he signed a new striker for the Werkself in the shape of Adam Hlozek. The Czechia international joined Bayer 04 from Sparta Prague as the youngest top goalscorer in the Czech top-flight.

With Hlozek on board, Bayer 04 under head coach Gerardo Seoane, who secured the fourth Champions League place the season before, set off for the summer training camp. Salzburger Land was the destination for the tenth time with the Werkself staying at the Hotel TauernSpa in Zell am See-Kaprun. Florian Wirtz also travelled to continue his rehab programme with the squad following his torn cruciate suffered in March.

On site there were numerous training sessions, media events and time with the travelling fans as well as two friendlies. The game against the Greek cup winners Panathinaikos – also the debut for Bayer 04 new signing Hlozek – ended goalless. The Werkself then beat the Italian club Udinese 2-1 in the final game before the start of the new season.

Early cup exit in Saarland

The season started at the end of July, due to the winter World Cup in November and December, with the first round ties in the DFB Cup. The Werkself were knocked out in a surprise 4-3 defeat against third-tier SV 07 Elversberg. That caused a big shock. The team from the Saarland went on to have an impressive season in the third division, clocking up over 70 points to go straight up into Bundesliga 2.

League start: No Wirtz and no points

At the start of the Bundesliga campaign, Amine Adli and Florian Wirtz were missing for Bayer 04 as in the cup match at Elversberg. The latter was out of action for several months. All of the first three Bundesliga fixtures of the season ended in defeat.

One curious event happened in the opening match in Dortmund (0-1): Keeper Lukas Hradecky was sent off five minutes into injury time for a handball outside his penalty area and, as all the substitutions had been made, defender Edmond Tapsoba had to play in goal.

Home won against Atlético Madrid

The Werkself had their first group match in the Champions League at the start of September. The match away to Belgian champions Club Brugge ended in a 1-0 defeat. Following the 2-2 draw away to Hertha Berlin on matchday six, Bayer 04 went into the first Champions League home game of the season against top Spanish club Atlético Madrid as the team next to bottom in the Bundesliga. Gerardo Seoane's team won 2-0 at the BayArena with two late goals. Robert Andrich scored for the first time in the Champions League.

Xabi Alonso takes charge of the Werkself

The convincing win against Atlético Madrid was was not followed by wins (a 1-1 draw at home to Werder Bremen, a 4-0 defeat in Munich). The club management decided on a change of head coaches after the 2-0 defeat in Porto. The change was made with the Werkself seventeenth in the Bundesliga. Bayer 04 appointed Xabi Alonso on 5 October. As a player, he won the World Cup in 2010 and the Champions league twice, as a coach he was in charge of the second team at the top-flight Spanish club Real Sociedad.

Alonso was in the dugout for the Black and Reds for the first time in the home game against Schalke 04 – and he started off with a 4-0 victory. That was a record at Leverkusen as a Werkself head coach had never previously won their first game in the Bundesliga by a bigger margin.

However, Alonso was not able to build on the successful start with his new team: There followed a 3-0 loss in Porto and a 5-1 defeat at Eintracht Frankfurt, which Alonso later described as a turning point.

Bayer 04 in European spot at winter break

The Werkself went into matchday five in Group B of the Champions League bottom of the Bundesliga. At least one point was needed at the Estadio Metropolitano to have a chance of going through to the knockout stages of the Europa League by finishing third. A high quality and fast-paced game ended in a 2-2 draw. The so important point was secured by goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky nine minutes into added time when he saved a penalty from Yannick Carrasco. The final whistle had already been blown but the intervention of VAR and consulting the video screen led referee Clément Turpin to point to the penalty spot.

On the sixth and final matchday in the Champions League group stage, a goalless draw on 1 November in the home game against surprise group winners Club Brugge was enough to secure third place as Atlético Madrid lost 2-1 away to Porto. 2022 ended on a positive note on the European stage and the focus was now on the league.

Three games, three wins before the break

The Werkself had three matches before the break due to the World Cup – and they clocked up a maximum number of points. The race to catch up had begun. It started with a home game against then league leaders Union Berlin. Lying sixteenth in the table, Bayer 04 clocked up a remarkable 5-0 victory against the team top of the league.

The Black and Reds went into the derby away to FC Köln on matchday 14 in a confident mood. The Werkself went behind early on but fought back and won the game within six minutes thanks to goals from Nadiem Amiri and Moussa Diaby. A derby victory! Euphoria returns!

That was followed by a 2-0 home win against VfB Stuttgart. The third victory in succession saw the Werkself go into the early Bundesliga winter break on 12 November twelfth in the table with 18 points from 15 games.

#Bayer04USATour to St. Louis

Just one day after the Stuttgart game, the Bayer 04 squad – without the players at the World Cup – set off for the USA. In St. Louis in the state of Missouri, the Werkself had a friendly against the newly formed team in the Major League Soccer (MLS), St. Louis CITY Soccer Club for the first game at the new CITYPARK Stadium. Day one of the #Bayer04USATour saw the arrival including a welcome from a large number of Bayer 04 fans. Day two included visits to the Bayer Crop Science research centre as well as soccer clinics at the Lou Fusz football club.

On day three, Xabi Alonso held a training session in the shadow of the St Louis Wheel, the famous landmark of the city. Sightseeing and watching a college basketball game in the evening were further highlights. The highlight of day four was the friendly against St. Louis City FC, which the Werkself won 3-0.

Day five was emotional: Bayer 04 squad members visited the Ranken Jordan Children's Hospital. The Werkself players including Kerem Demirbay and Karim Bellarabi took time out for the children to play with and talk to them. The sixth and final day ended on a high watching the NHL match between St. Louis Blues and the Washington Capitals (5-4 on penalties).

Palacios wins world Cup with Argentina

The #Bayer04USATour was followed by the World Cup. Four players from Bayer 04 were in Qatar from 20 November: Piero Hincapie with Ecuador, Exequiel Palacios with Argentina, Sardar Azmoun with Iran and Jeremie Frimpong with the Netherlands. While the tournament ended in the group stages for Hincapie and Azmoun, Palacios and Frimpong went through to the knockout stages with their national teams.

The quarter-finals bought a head-to-head encounter between the two Leverkusen players still involved in the competition. Palacios with Argentina went through to the semi-finals on penalties. The win against Croatia in the last four put the South Americans through to a final against France. A turbulent encounter ended with Palacios and his team winners of the World Cup on penalties.

How the only World Cup winner in the Bundesliga received a fitting reception on his return to Leverkusen at the start of January and how the Werkself picked up in the New Year in the 2022/23 campaign is covered in part two on Tuesday...