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Berlin (AFP) – Former Liverpool and Bayern Munich coach Xabi Alonso made a strong start at the helm of the technical staff of Bayer Leverkusen by leading him to a crushing victory over his guest Schalke 04 on Saturday in the ninth stage of the German Football Championship.
Alonso took office only 3 days ago, replacing the Swiss Gerardo Sewan, who paid the price for not winning in his last four league games before falling to Porto 0-2 in the Champions League on Tuesday.
Alonso coached the reserve team of Real Sociedad in his hometown of Basque for three years until last May, and contributed to his rise to the second division in Spain for the first time in 60 years, before relegation at the end of last season.
With this victory, which is the second for Leverkusen this season, the team came out of the danger zone, at least temporarily, and is in the 14th place temporarily, with 8 points.
Frenchman Moussa Diaby opened the scoring with a powerful shot in the 38th minute. Then the English winger Callum Hudson-Odoi manipulated players from Schalke 04 before passing a cross towards Diaby and from him to Dutchman Jeremy Frimpong, to be followed by the latter into the net (41).
Frimpong added his second personal goal and the third for his team (51) before the Brazilian Paulinho concluded the goals festival in the second minute of overtime.
Bochum, who finished last, inflicted a severe defeat on last season’s Europa League champion Eintracht Frankfurt, with three clean goals, and temporarily prevented him from catching up with the leaders Union Berlin and Freiburg.
Two matches ended in a 1-1 draw: Mainz with its guest Leipzig and Augsburg with its guest Wolfsburg.
Later, the El Classicer match will be held between Borussia Dortmund and its guest, Bayern Munich.
© 2022 AFP
