Leverkusen shifts focus to Bundesliga title race
Xavi Alonso says Bayer Leverkusen must bounce back from its surprise DFB-Pokal defeat and focus on challenging for silverware in the Bundesliga.
Leverkusen, which won the DFB-Pokal last season, was beaten 2-1 by third-tier Arminia Bielefeld in the semi-finals in midweek, losing its first match in the competition since Alonso took over.
Having also been knocked out of the UEFA Champions League last month by Bayern Munich, the reigning champion is now turning its attention to the title race, where it sits six points behind Vincent Kompany's Bayern.
That gap, however, could open up to nine points ahead of Leverkusen's match against Heidenheim, with Bayern facing Augsburg a day earlier.
Leverkusen has won all three of its Bundesliga meetings against Heidenheim so far, scoring 11 goals. Alonso's side is also unbeaten in its past 30 away games in the German top-flight, winning 22 of them, the second-longest run in league history after the 33 managed by Bayern.
"Now we can really focus only on the Bundesliga because the situation is a different one," Alonso said.
"But after the DFB-Pokal defeat, we have to keep going. We have seven matches in the league left to play, and we have to win them."
Against Bielefeld, Leverkusen managed 13 shots, with four of those attempts on target, and also hit the woodwork, but couldn't get the job done.
Alonso emphasised the importance of getting back to winning ways at Heidenheim as there was no room for dropped points at this stage of the season.
"Now it is only about the Bundesliga. We are in an interesting position for anything to happen, so we will see," Alonso said, adding he had been talking to his players in the past days to overcome the DFB-Pokal setback quickly.
"The best thing is to talk, to share our emotions. It was an important goal for us to go to Berlin [for the DFB-Pokal final], but sometimes you have to accept that sport is like that.
"We had big expectations to be in Berlin, but now is the moment to show a good reaction and a good spirit. That's what we want [on Sunday AEDT]."
