Florian Wirtz. Deutscher Meister. Even from the bench, the 20-year-old impacts the game. Wirtz scored his maiden Bundesliga hat-trick as Bayer Leverkusen went on to win their first championship, ending Bayern Munich’s 11-year dominance. Behind Bayer’s historic 5-0 win, was a monstrous 45 minute display from Wirtz.
With Thursday’s game against West Ham in mind Xabi Alonso made seven changes to the starting eleven, one of them being Wirtz starting on the bench. But replacing Amine Adli at the break, Wirtz lit up the BayArena with every touch of the ball.
Wirtz was at the centre of every Leverkusen attack in the second-half. With 45 touches of the ball, he scored three goals from five shots, completed 96% of his passes and also created one big chance, per FotMob.
Not only that, you will be troubled to find a better goal this season than Wirtz’ first against Werder Bremen. From 25-yards, he fired the ball past a stricken Michael Zetterer in the 68th minute before adding his second in the 83rd minute, remaining composed to place the ball in the bottom corner, sending the gathering Bayer fans onto the pitch prematurely.
Wirtz then completed his hat-trick in the 90th minute, showing strength to hold off the opposing defender and again, placing the ball beyond Zetterer with a high degree of accuracy.
Bayer Leverkusen, Deutscher Meister
A historic day for Bayer Leverkusen, Xabi Alonso coached his side to their first ever Bundesliga title. With 25 wins and four draws in 29 league games this season, Bayer are the deserved winners.
But not only that, each and every player of this Leverkusen squad has played a role. Whether that’s Nathan Tella in place of Jeremie Frimpong, or Piero Hincapie coming in for Alejandro Grimaldo, Patrik Schick’s timely return was vital in the absence of Victor Boniface and this season, everything just clicked into place.
