Bayer Leverkusen began their title defense on Friday and did as they had done on many occasions last season.
Granit Xhaka again showed a very high level of play for the team led by coach Xabi Alonso.
Xhaka and Leverkusen ended the last edition with a double triumph in Germany, that of the Bundesliga without a single loss, while also securing the German Cup trophy.
The midfielder with the most appearances in Switzerland, Xhaka, had scored a super goal in the Cup triumph over Kaiserslautern.
He did the same on Friday night in the first match of the season away to Borussia Moenchengladbach, when Leverkusen won 3:2.
It took Xhaka only 12 minutes of play to unlock the result with a very powerful shot from nearly 30 meters away. Goalkeeper Jonas Omlin was unlikely, while the Albanian midfielder did not celebrate out of respect for his former team.
Florian Wirtz doubled the score in the 38th minute.
In the 59th minute, Nico Elvedi narrowed the lead to 2:1, while Tim Kleindienst equalized the numbers.
In the 11th minute of extra time, Wirtz scored another goal. The first attempt from the execution of the penalty was received by the goalkeeper Omlin, but the German midfielder scored in the second attempt for the dramatic victory, 3:2.
And so the new season started in the Bundesliga, with the old Leverkusen.
In the next match, Leverkusen and Granit Xhaka will play on Wednesday against Carl Zeiss Jena, in the second round of the German Cup.
“I know what it’s like to play in this stadium, but we did everything well in this opening game which was special. The ball came to me at the right moment and I had to shoot immediately. Of course, out of respect for the Borussia Moenchengladbach fans, I didn’t celebrate. I didn’t react well in the first chance and we conceded a goal. Painful that we conceded such a goal. We missed a 100 percent chance when the score was 2:0 and gave Gladbach another chance to equalize. But we knew that another chance would come for us. We are happy that we won the penalty. Omlin saved the penalty well, but thank God, Wirtzi scored. We want to play in the Champions League next season as well, but the important thing is that the first step was the right one”, Xhaka emphasized after the match.