DUESSELDORF, Germany (AP) — Forty games unbeaten, and a historic treble is still on. Bayer Leverkusen and Xabi Alonso are having a remarkable season.
After Bayern Munich coach Thomas Tuchel conceded in the Bundesliga title race last week, Leverkusen is 13 points ahead with seven games remaining and can take another stride toward its first league trophy on Saturday against Union Berlin. There's even the prospect of being the first club ever to have an unbeaten season in the Bundesliga.
Wednesday's 4-0 win against Fortuna Duesseldorf in the German Cup semifinals left Leverkusen 90 minutes away from another trophy in next month's final. Alonso's team also faces West Ham in the Europa League quarterfinals next week.
Here is a look at some of the key milestones in Leverkusen's unbeaten season so far:
GAME 2: BAYER LEVERKUSEN 3-2 LEIPZIG
The season-opener was a leisurely 8-0 romp past fourth-division Teutonia Ottensen in the cup, before the first game of the league season showed Leverkusen's Bundesliga credentials with goals from Jeremie Frimpong, Jonathan Tah and Florian Wirtz. Leipzig hoped to start the season as a title contender after stunning Bayern in the German Super Cup. It turned out to be Leverkusen's season instead.
GAME 5: BAYERN MUNICH 2-2 BAYER LEVERKUSEN
Exequiel Palacios leveled the score with a stoppage-time penalty to show Leverkusen's Bundesliga title challenge could be for real. Late goals have become a speciality for Leverkusen under Alonso.
GAME 20: BAYER LEVERKUSEN 1-1 BORUSSIA DORTMUND
After drawing with Bayern, Leverkusen went on a 14-game winning run in all competitions and showed it was no overnight success. Dortmund came closest to ending the unbeaten streak in December but Victor Boniface's 13th league goal leveled the score.
GAME 31 BAYER LEVERKUSEN 3-0 BAYERN MUNICH
This was the game that turned Leverkusen from a title contender into the hot favorite to end Bayern's streak of titles. Alonso's players didn't just beat Bayern, they did it convincingly, barely allowing the champion a shot at goal. Alonso also got the better of Bayern coach Thomas Tuchel in terms of tactics, switching to a back four from his usual back three. The win put Leverkusen five points clear of Bayern, a gap which has only widened since.
GAME 36: BAYER LEVERKUSEN 3-2 QARABAG (5-4 AGGREGATE)
The team that came closest to breaking Leverkusen's unbeaten record was something of a surprise. Azerbaijani club Qarabag came within minutes of winning both legs of their Europa League last-16 clash as the packed calendar took its toll. Still, Leverkusen held on and drew the first game 2-2, winning the second 3-2, both times on stoppage-time goals from Patrik Schick.
GAME 39: BAYER LEVERKUSEN 2-1 HOFFENHEIM
Czech striker Schick did it again last week with another late winner against Hoffenheim, as Leverkusen marked Alonso's announcement the day before that he was staying with the team amid links to Bayern and Liverpool. On the same day, Bayern dropped more points, prompting Tuchel to admit he no longer believed his team could win the title.
GAME 40: BAYER LEVERKUSEN 4-0 FORTUNA DUESSELDORF
Leverkusen fans can dream of a league and cup double after Wednesday's win to reach the German Cup final, with two goals from Wirtz. “In each game we see a really grown-up Flo. He's there at the key moments and takes responsibility,” Alonso said of the 20-year-old Wirtz. Top scorer Boniface returned from injury after last playing for Leverkusen in December.
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Leverkusen's head coach Xabi Alonso, right, embraces Leverkusen's Jeremie Frimpong after the German soccer cup match between Bayer 04 Leverkusen and Fortuna Duesseldorf in Leverkusen, Germany, April 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)
Leverkusen's Granit Xhaka celebrates with team mates after the German soccer cup match between Bayer 04 Leverkusen and Fortuna Duesseldorf in Leverkusen, Germany, April 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)
Leverkusen's Granit Xhaka celebrates with team mates after the German soccer cup match between Bayer 04 Leverkusen and Fortuna Duesseldorf in Leverkusen, Germany, April 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Medicaid expansion efforts fizzled and died Thursday in Republican-led Mississippi because top lawmakers could not agree on a final proposal to send to the House and Senate.
This was the first year that expansion has received serious legislative discussion in Mississippi, which is one of the poorest states in the U.S. and has some of the worst health outcomes.
Any plan would have needed to pass with at least a two-thirds vote — a wide enough margin to survive an expected veto from Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, who refers to Medicaid as “welfare” and says he does not want more people to enroll.
House Medicaid Committee Chair Missy McGee, a Republican, pushed for expansion and said she was disappointed the issue died.
“We did the very best we could to get it across the finish line, and I’m sad that it looks like we’re ending the session without something for the hardworking, low-income Mississippians,” McGee said.
Medicaid is a government health insurance program that covers people with very low incomes. Then-President Barack Obama signed a health care overhaul law in 2010 that allows states to expand coverage, generally to people who work in jobs that pay modest wages and don't provide private health insurance. Ten states, mostly Republican-led, have resisted expansion.
Mississippi House and Senate leaders missed a Thursday night deadline to file a final plan, and that killed the issue for the four-month session that is drawing to a close.
Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann told reporters that passing Medicaid expansion would be the first order of business during the 2025 legislative session.
“In my mind, we’ve left 74,000 people, working, that could’ve had health care coverage in Mississippi,” Hosemann said. “We didn’t give them that.”
House and Senate negotiators released a proposal Monday to expand Medicaid to tens of thousands more people, but it included a work requirement. House Democrats balked before the plan could come up for a vote, saying it was Medicaid expansion in name only because the federal government has blocked several states from having such mandates.
The House offered a new proposal Thursday to would put two questions on the ballot this November: Should Mississippi expand Medicaid? If so, should the expansion include a work requirement?
White said Thursday that a referendum would have been a good measurement of public sentiment about Medicaid expansion.
“I’m proud of my House Republicans for being willing to have an open mind and think about it in terms of what is best for Mississippi in terms of the health care, the health care economy, the health of our people," White said.
Hosemann said the proposal to put Medicaid expansion on the ballot “was not well received” by Senate leaders. He said senators were firm about having a work requirement “with necessary exceptions.”
The Mississippi House voted by a wide bipartisan margin in late February to expand Medicaid coverage to about 200,000 people who earn up to 138% of the federal poverty level, or $20,120 annually for one person. Mississippi has about 3 million residents, and its Medicaid program covered 374,823 people in March.
In late March, the Senate passed its own pared-down version that would extend eligibility to people earning up to 100% of the federal poverty level, just over $15,000 for one person. Senate Medicaid Committee Chairman Kevin Blackwell, a Republican from Southaven, said about 80,000 people would become eligible for coverage.
Mississippi House Medicaid Committee Chairman Rep. Missy McGee, R-Hattiesburg, right, gestures as she confers with House Speaker Rep. Jason White, R-West, at the state Capitol in Jackson, Miss., Thursday, May 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
Bishop Brian Seage of the Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi, joins other members of Working Together Mississippi, a coalition of religious and nonprofit groups, at the state Capitol in Jackson, Miss., to call on the Mississippi Legislature to reach a compromise that would allow for passage of Medicaid expansion legislation, Thursday, May 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
Members of Working Together Mississippi, a coalition of religious and nonprofit groups, discuss strategy at the state Capitol in Jackson, Miss., following a news conference where they called on the Mississippi Legislature to reach a compromise that would allow for passage of Medicaid expansion legislation, Thursday, May 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
Msgr. Elvin Sunds, of the Catholic Diocese of Jackson, joins other members of Working Together Mississippi, a coalition of religious and nonprofit groups, at the state Capitol in Jackson, Miss., to call on the Mississippi Legislature to reach a compromise that would allow for passage of Medicaid expansion legislation, Thursday, May 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
Bishop Ronnie Crudup Sr., of the Mid-South Diocese of the Fellowship of International Churches, center, joins other members of Working Together Mississippi, a coalition of religious and nonprofit groups, at the state Capitol in Jackson, Miss., calling on the Mississippi Legislature to reach a compromise that would allow for passage of Medicaid expansion legislation, Thursday, May 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
Mississippi House of Representatives Speaker Jason White, R-West, calls out the vote count on an appropriations bill in chamber at the state Capitol in Jackson, Miss., Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
Mississippi Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, right, confers with State Sen. Scott DeLano, R-Biloxi, in the Senate Chamber, at the Mississippi State Capitol in Jackson, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
Mississippi Senate Medicaid Committee Chairman Sen. Kevin Blackwell, R-Southaven, left, confers with Mississippi House Medicaid Committee Chairman Rep. Missy McGee, R-Hattiesburg, center, and a Senate legislative attorney, Wednesday, May 1, 2024, in the hallways of the state Capitol in Jackson, Miss., moments before both chambers voted to recommit Medicaid expansion legislation. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
