Leverkusen are crowned Youth Cup Champions in Madrid

Bayer Leverkusen managed to pull off the unthinkable on Saturday night and win the Youth Cup in Madrid against a very good XI. With Bayer taking a narrow 1-0 advantage to the Bernebau courtesy

of a late Biro strike we knew it would be tough to keep the lead in tact.

Madrid dictated all the possession as expected as we looked to keep it tight at the back, Both sides had chances to win the game but neither could find the back of the net and in the end the game finished 0-0 with Madrid’s Goalkeeper Moreira named MOTM but that result had meant Leverkusen had done the unthinkable and kept Madrid out both legs.

Overall we had a great season in the Youth Cup with special mentions for Jedvaj and Brandt, But the signings of Dongou and Sanabria pushed us over the line.

So now we will take a look back at Leverkusens road to glory and it didn’t start as we had planned…

Firstly we lost 2-0 at home to Cruzeiro and then followed this result up with a boring 0-0 draw against Monchengladbach.

The club suddenly were in real trouble and we were being asked whether Calhanoglu’s exclusion from this seasons youth cup was to blame for our troubled start, Something then clicked from this game onwards…

We were beaten 2-0 by a over-aged Augsberg team and was handed a 3-0 win and our first 3 points.

Leverkusen then went on to record 3 straight victories with 2-0 wins over Tottenham and Cruzeiro and a 2-1 win over Monchengladbach.

We were then beaten 1-0 by a over-aged Augsberg team and was handed a 3-0 win again.

We finished off the group stage with another 2-0 win over Tottenham.

We had gone from being on our knees in real trouble to topping the group with a massive 19 points.

Aston Villa was the first team up in the knockouts and we pulled off a 3-0 win, then we faced a resolute Sampdoria side who held us to a 2-2 draw and only mythical extra time saw us through.

In the Quarter Finals we faced a strong Atletico Madrid side but we were the better side on the day and won 3-1.

Semi Finals were next and we faced surprise package Anderlecht who had done remarkably well to reach the last 4, we won both games though 2-0 and 3-1 to progress to the final……..

Then as above a 1-0 win in the first leg was the difference with a 0-0 return leg meaning we beat Real Madrid 1-0 on agg to lift the trophy.

The Leverkusen board were delighted with the silverware in a strange season which also saw them relegated from Division 1 last night, But the Cup win should be enough to keep Noisy in the job and give him the chance to lead Leverkusen back to Division 1, he has the experience having already done it with Fenerbahce so the board are hoping he can pull it off again.