'Viva Espana' blares out as Leverkusen pitch invasion gets wild

Leverkusen coach Xabi Alonso celebrates winning the German championship following the German Bundesliga soccer match between Bayer 04 Leverkusen and SV Werder Bremen at BayArena. David Inderlied/dpa

Thousands of Bayer Leverkusen fans invaded the pitch and cut up the turf and goal netting - despite potentially having a Europa League semi-final to come - as they celebrated the club's first men's Bundesliga title.

The 5-0 thumping of Werder Bremen on Sunday brought about the title in style with five games to spare and the players were suddenly swamped by flag-waving fans on a packed pitch. The team struggled to get to the tunnel as the party went wild.

The public address system played "Viva Espana" as a tribute to Spanish coach Xabi Alonso, who has masterminded a so far unbeaten season and could be on for a treble.

They visit West Ham in their Europa League quarter-final second leg on Thursday with a 2-0 lead but will hope the fans have not done too much damage to the BayArena ahead of any semi-final.

Leverkusen also meet second division Kaiserslautern in the German Cup final on May 25.

The pitch invasion actually began as soon as star playmaker Florian Wirtz completed his hat-trick in injury time. The throngs of fans made it impossible to restart and the referee decided to blow the final whistle for a 5-0 triumph.

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