Alonso hails Leverkusen rearguard after stubborn Bayern display

Xabi Alonso was proud of his Bayer Leverkusen players after they produced a resolute defensive performance to earn a 1-1 Bundesliga draw at Bayern Munich.

After Robert Andrich gave Leverkusen the lead, Bayern’s Aleksandar Pavlovic levelled with a stunning half-volley from 25 yards out which gave goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky no chance.

Bayern, who had won all four of their previous league games under Vincent Kompany, had 18 shots to Leverkusen’s three and almost 70% of the possession.

That is the fewest shots Leverkusen have attempted in any of their 98 competitive matches under Alonso, while they also generated just 0.07 expected goals (xG) to Bayern’s 1.32.

Despite their lack of attacking threat, Alonso was delighted with his side’s defensive resilience, saying: “The energy and belief at Bayern is different to last season, they are going full throttle with and against the ball.

“That was very tough today. We can be happy with the point. I needed more energy from the team.

“I’m happy with that. We were ready to suffer and we did that. We need the discipline and passion of the players.

“It wasn’t easy, we didn’t have control of the ball. It was a challenge to defend. The point is important… The whole team did very well. We hardly had a chance to breathe but I’m very proud of my players.”

Leverkusen midfielder Granit Xhaka, who provided the assist for the opener, said their main strategy was to be compact and deny Bayern opportunities to score.

“We are self-critical. If you score three goals every game, that’s not enough. If we play well today and switch gears, we can do something,” Xhaka said.

“Defensively, we put in a good performance. The goal today was to be compact and concede little. You can certainly do more with the ball and everyone knows that we can do more. If someone had told us before the game that we would get a point, we would have taken it.”

Leverkusen will next turn their attention to the Champions League, when they host AC Milan on Tuesday.