Head-to-head record
Previous meetings: 5
Liverpool wins: 4
Draws: 0
B. Leverkusen wins: 1
Xabi Alonso's current and former employers have only crossed paths on five occasions - all of which have come in the Champions League - and Liverpool have prevailed on four occasions while only succumbing to one defeat to Bayer Leverkusen.
Alonso enjoyed a rapturous reception from the Anfield crowd in the 2024-25 league phase, but there was no room for sentiment as Arne Slot's men ripped Leverkusen to shreds in a 4-0 dismantling, where Luis Diaz scored a hat-trick and Cody Gakpo also got in on the act.
That league phase tie was the first meeting between Liverpool and Leverkusen for some 19-and-a-half years, as their previous most recent contest came back in the 2004-05 tournament, where they clashed in a two-legged last-16 battle.
Alonso was not available for either of those matches for Liverpool - he had his ankle broken by Frank Lampard earlier in the year - but Rafael Benitez's men still strode to a 6-2 aggregate victory with a pair of 3-1 victories.
Luis Garcia, John Arne Riise and Dietmar Hamann were on target in the first leg at Anfield, but Franca managed a last-gasp consolation for Leverkusen during the days when away goals actually meant something.
The German side could not build on that lifeline a couple of weeks later, though, as Garcia was on target twice more in the second leg in Germany, before Milan Baros made the result even more emphatic for the 2004-05 champions.
Prior to locking horns in the Miracle of Istanbul year, Liverpool and Leverkusen's inaugural competitive meetings occurred in the 2001-02 quarter-finals, where a solitary Sami Hyypia effort was enough to propel the Reds to a 1-0 first-leg win.
However, Liverpool's defence was found wanting in the second leg, when Michael Ballack scored twice and Dimitar Berbatov also got in on the act in a 4-2 triumph for Leverkusen, who went on to lose to Real Madrid in the final.
Abel Xavier and Jari Litmanen were responsible for Liverpool's consolation efforts that day, and Garcia is unsurprisingly the leading scorer in this head-to-head with three strikes to his name in 2005.
Previous meetings:
Nov 05, 2024: Liverpool 4-0 Bayer Leverkusen (Champions League League Phase)
Mar 09, 2005: Bayer Leverkusen 1-3 Liverpool (Champions League Last-16 Second Leg)
Feb 22, 2005: Liverpool 3-1 Bayer Leverkusen (Champions League Last-16 First Leg)
Apr 09, 2002: Bayer Leverkusen 4-2 Liverpool (Champions League Quarter-Finals Second Leg)
Apr 03, 2002: Liverpool 1-0 Bayer Leverkusen (Champions League Quarter-Finals First Leg)
Ben Knapton
