LEVERKUSEN, Germany (AP) — With Bayer Leverkusen one step away from an historic title, coach Xabi Alonso is trying to keep his players' feet firmly on the ground.
Leverkusen is unbeaten in 42 games in all competitions this season after beating West Ham 2-0 in the Europa League on Thursday. Another victory Sunday against mid-table Werder Bremen would secure the club's first Bundesliga title.
“We don’t take for granted any game,” Alonso said Friday. He declined to go into detail about how the team might celebrate or what the achievement would mean, indicating it was out of respect to opposing teams.
“We have a super situation on Sunday but we are preparing for it with full respect, so I don't want to talk too much,” he said.
There is a chance Leverkusen could become champion a day early if 11-time defending champion Bayern Munich and third-place Stuttgart both lose their games Saturday, but Alonso said he didn't want that to happen.
“That would be a big surprise to be honest,” he said. “I’d rather win it on the field with our victory.”
Leverkusen goes into this weekend's games with a 16-point lead over Bayern and Stuttgart and six games left to play in the Bundesliga. Leverkusen is chasing a possible treble. Besides the Bundesliga, Alonso's team has reached the final of the German Cup and is in the quarterfinals of the Europa League.
Leverkusen's game Sunday will be must-see TV for German soccer fans but Alonso's counterpart at Bayern, Thomas Tuchel, said he won't tune in.
Leverkusen's game kicks off at the same time as Bayern's next Champions League opponent, Arsenal, plays Aston Villa in the English Premier League. Bayern hosts Arsenal on Wednesday with the score at 2-2 from the first leg of their quarterfinal fixture.
“I'm not going to watch the Leverkusen game on Sunday,” he said. “I'll be watching Arsenal.”
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Leverkusen's head coach Xabi Alonso, centre left, celebrates with Leverkusen's Alex Grimaldo after the Europa League quarterfinals first leg soccer match between Bayer 04 Leverkusen and West Ham United at the BayArena in Leverkusen, Germany, Thursday, April 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Wednesday announced his government will break diplomatic relations with Israel effective Thursday in the latest escalation of tensions between the countries over the Israel-Hamas war.
Petro again described Israel’s siege of Gaza as “genocide.” He previously suspended purchases of weapons from Israel and compared that country’s actions in Gaza to those of Nazi Germany.
“Tomorrow, diplomatic relations with the State of Israel will be broken … for having a genocidal president,” Petro said during an International Workers’ Day march in Colombia’s capital. “If Palestine dies, humanity dies, and we are not going to let it die.”
Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz quickly rebuked Petro’s comments on the platform X.
“History will remember that Gustavo Petro decided to side with the most despicable monsters known to mankind who burned babies, murdered children, raped women and kidnapped innocent civilians,” he said.
Weeks after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel that sparked the current war in Gaza and killed some 1,200 people, Petro recalled Colombia’s ambassador to Israel as he criticized the country’s military offensive.
Historically, Colombia had been one of Israel’s closest partners in Latin America. But relations between the two nations have cooled since Petro was elected as Colombia’s first leftist president in 2022.
Colombia uses Israeli-built warplanes and machine guns to fight drug cartels and rebel groups, and both countries signed a free trade agreement in 2020.
“Relations between Israel and Colombia always were warm and no antisemitic and hate-filled president will succeed in changing that," Katz wrote Tuesday. "The state of Israel will continue to defend its citizens without worry and without fear.”
The South American country deepened its military ties with Israel in the late 1980s by purchasing Kfir fighter jets that were used by Colombia’s air force in numerous attacks on remote guerrilla camps that debilitated the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. The attacks helped push the group into peace talks that resulted in its disarmament in 2016.
Petro participated in Wednesday’s march in Bogota to promote his proposed health care, pension and labor reforms.
Israeli soldiers gather near the Israeli-Gaza border in southern Israel before they enter Gaza Strip, Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
