Coach Xabi Alonso on Leverkusen's astounding season and the UEFA Europa League final against Atalanta – interview

A UEFA Champions League winner with Liverpool and Real Madrid, and a two-time UEFA European Championship gold medallist with Spain, Xabi Alonso was one of the great midfielders of his age and is now emerging as a major talent as a coach too.

Hired by Leverkusen in October 2022, he had a challenging first season at the BayArena playing catch-up but is currently enjoying an astonishing second one, leading the Werkself to their first Bundesliga title, the German Cup final and the UEFA Europa League final without losing a single game.

The Europa League showpiece against Atalanta could bring Leverkusen their second major trophy of the season, with a treble in prospect if they can also beat Kaiserslautern in the German Cup final three days later. Their 42-year-old boss has been a little taken aback by how well they have performed so far, but, as he explained to UEFA.com, he knows a truly historic achievement is within their grasp.

On his move into coaching

When I was a player, I was very interested in the game, in the opposition, in the preparation, and wondering why things happened. As a midfielder, it has helped me to develop and expand my knowledge of the game. I started coaching the Real Madrid Under-13s, then I spent three years coaching the Real Sociedad B team, which helped me a lot, and now I'm facing my first professional experience here at Leverkusen, which is currently going quite well.

It's very important to create both confidence and reliability, to bring the squad together, to develop a good day-to-day dynamic; all of this reinforces the players' commitment to achieve our objectives. Then, of course, you have to convince each player and give them an idea they can commit to. You need to be close to your players to understand them because then you know how to demand more from them. They will make mistakes, but you can't be telling them off all the time. You also need to be a great psychologist.

On how Leverkusen have remained unbeaten

I think it's down to the consistency and our performance level, the mental level, our level of focus. In terms of our mentality and level of focus, the team has suffered virtually no disasters or a single bad moment during any game, and that has allowed us to have such an exceptional season. But everything has to be about performance and the mentality we are building.

We have been competitive in every game whether we were playing well or poorly. We played well for the majority of the games, but we didn't give up in the ones where we didn't play well. That says a lot about the commitment of this team when it comes to preparing for every game. We didn't take any game for granted, we prepared very well and that requires a lot of physical, footballing and mental effort too.

Xabi Alonso celebrates winning the Bundesliga titleGetty Images

On ending the campaign unbeaten

It would be historic. It would be something written in golden letters, not only in the history of our club but probably all European football. I hope we can.

On final opponents Atalanta

It will be a very intense match, against a very demanding opponent, with very clear ideas, with a coach who has been with them for a long time, players who have been together for many years and who know each other well. We are going to play based on our ideas, our game and our enthusiasm to hopefully win, but to compete as we are doing. We know Atalanta well, and there are no secrets; they will know us well too, and then hopefully, the game will be a good one.

It would mean a lot, a lot to me [to win a European trophy]. To be able to share it with the people from the club, with the fans. You see what it meant when we won the Bundesliga. To be able to win a European title after so many years since we won [the UEFA Cup in 1988] would be historic, and we want to do that, to have a historic season.