Erik Meijer, the former Bayer 04 Leverkusen striker, delivered a blunt assessment of his old club on the eve of the DFB-Pokal semifinal: with this squad, he said, the team must finish in the Champions League places. "Bei Bayer musst du mit diesem Kader unter die Top Vier kommen. Punkt," Meijer said, and set that demand against a string of recent results that have left the club far from comfortable.
Leverkusen arrive at Wednesday evening's cup tie as clear underdogs to FC Bayern — they sit sixth in the Bundesliga and are four points behind fourth place — and they trail Bayern by 27 points in the league. Their form has wavered: a 1-2 loss to Augsburg most recently, a 0-3 defeat to Bayern in the first half of the season and a 1-1 draw with Bayern in a more recent meeting underline the inconsistency Meijer flagged.
Meijer pointed to a lack of identifiable style. "Ich erkenne nicht deutlich genug, wofür die Mannschaft stehen soll," he said. He added that the team has shown "wenig Wiedererkennbares" and criticised coach Kasper Hjulmand for not imposing what Meijer called "die klare Handschrift" on the side. "Er hat die Mannschaft bislang noch nicht komplett erreicht, noch nicht so gepackt, dass die Spiele mit voller Überzeugung durchgezogen werden," he said.
The numbers behind Meijer's sharp tone are stark. Under Xabi Alonso, Leverkusen did not lose any of six matches against Bayern across the Bundesliga and the cup and recorded three wins, including a 3-0 victory in February 2024 that helped set the course toward the title they eventually secured on 14 April 2024. That recent history is the clearest benchmark for this Leverkusen side; since Alonso's departure the results have slipped.
Meijer made the stakes plain and offered a conditional endorsement of the coach if objectives are met. "Wenn das klare Ziel ist, wieder unter die ersten vier zu kommen und damit Champions League zu spielen - und das mit ansehnlichem Fußball -, dann sage ich: ja," he said, and added the short coda "natürlich mit dazu." At the same time, he did not rule out change: he suggested the club could need a coaching adjustment in the summer if the target is not reached.
The contrast between the Alonso years and the current campaign frames the semifinal. Alonso's Leverkusen went unbeaten in six fixtures against Bayern and claimed three wins; they were the team that beat Bayern 3-0 in February 2024 en route to the April title. Hjulmand's side are sixth now and have not matched that level, a fact Meijer returned to repeatedly.
There are complicating details. In a recent encounter Bayern had to play from the 42nd minute with ten men after Nicolas Jackson received a red card, and Leverkusen also recorded a 1-0 cup win in Munich in autumn 2024 under tactical settings attributed to Alonso. Those results provide fragments of confidence, but Meijer treats them as isolated points of reference rather than proof the current project is on course.
Meijer's perspective is shaped by history: he is not a neutral observer. The Dutch forward played 106 competitive matches for Leverkusen between 1996 and 1999 and scored 21 goals for the club. That past gives his critique weight in local debates about identity and direction, and it explains why his words carry the sting of someone invested in how the club should look on the pitch.
For the club, the immediate question is practical: can Hjulmand convince the dressing room in knockout conditions on Wednesday evening? For Meijer, that answer will determine whether ambitious targets remain realistic or whether the club must consider a different path by summer. The semifinal is therefore more than a cup match: it is a public test of whether Hjulmand's ideas have taken hold — and whether the club can still meet Meijer's demand to return to the top four.
