Taking over a team in 17th and guiding them to the Europa League semi-final, Alonso has already done enough to pique interest from much bigger clubs. This is a team of decent rather than stellar qualities that have been lifted close to its ceiling by discipline and organisation, in other words: by good management. But on the whole, the trip to the Italian capital put Bayer’s collective powers into perspective. Wirtz is so talented that he’ll make his mark come what may, good health permitting. Only this time, it’s the other way around.įlorian Wirtz (Photo: Oliver Weiken/picture alliance via Getty Images) But as the Germans tried and ultimately failed to prise open Jose Mourinho’s dogged Roma amid all the dizzying noise and colour of the Stadio Olimpico, it became clear there is the same imbalance in terms of star power between the manager and the team’s key players as in 2002. Leverkusen, trophyless since 1993 (DFB Pokal), haven’t hit such heights in the two decades since, which has made this season’s advance to the semi-final all the more momentous.

A former striker with Kaiserslautern, he was only in charge at club level for one more chaotic year with Hamburger SV, and retired after coaching Georgia in 2008. Toppmoller was fired the next season when Leverkusen struggled to cope without all the high-profile departures and nearly got relegated. But who remembers the coach? Klaus Toppmoller’s modest career before and after that treble of second spots suggests he was merely a guy at the right place at the right time, like Chelsea’s interim coach Roberto Di Matteo in 2012 or Avram Grant, who would have been a Champions League winner but for John Terry’s missed penalty four years earlier. There was also a good support cast, with decent pros such as Carsten Ramelow (Germany), Diego Placente (Argentina) and tricky little Bernd Schneider.

That Zidane volley (Photo: Neal Simpson/EMPICS via Getty Images)

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