Bochum 0-5 Bayer Leverkusen: Champions crush 10-man hosts to hit 50 games unbeaten

Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen crushed hosts Bochum 5-0 on Sunday to stretch their remarkable unbeaten run across all competitions this season to 50 consecutive matches.

Xabi Alonso’s team, aiming for a treble of titles, surpassed Benfica’s long-standing European unbeaten record with a 2-2 draw against Roma on Thursday that sent them through to the Europa League final.

On Saturday, they did not ease off against lowly Bochum, scoring twice late in the first half versus the last Bundesliga team to beat them in the previous season.

Patrik Schick put Leverkusen in the driving seat in the 41st minute and Victor Boniface doubled their lead with a penalty in first-half added time, with Bochum down to 10 men following a straight red card early on for Felix Passlack.

Amine Adli made it 3-0 in the 76th minute and Josip Stanisic added another 10 minutes later with a low drive before delivering an assist for Alejandro Grimaldo to score in stoppage time with a tap-in.

Leverkusen, who face Atalanta in the Europa League showpiece match and Kaiserslautern in the DFB-Pokal final, have 87 points with one Bundesliga game left this season.

Bayern Munich, 2-0 winners against Wolfsburg earlier on Sunday, are 15 points behind in second place.