Leverkusen defender Jonathan Tah looks to finish historic season unbeaten and with more trophies

Jonathan Tah is already a Ger‐ man champion with Bayer Lev‐ erkusen. He's hungry for more titles.

Tah could yet complete a treble this season in the Europa League — where Leverkusen plays Roma in the semifinals next week — and in the German Cup. Then there's the European Championship with Germany, for which Tah has become a regular starter in central defense along‐ side Real Madrid's Antonio Rüdi‐ ger.

Leverkusen's players and coach Xabi Alonso — who Tah show‐ ered with beer during their title celebrations — aren't satisfied just with bringing the long‐ awaited first league title to a club once derided as "Neverkusen" for its near misses.

"This trophy gave us so much positive energy. To have that feeling to win a trophy, the hunger gets even bigger and that's why we keep our level high," Tah tells The Associated Press. "One trophy is nice but there's still more to achieve, so that's why we keep pushing our‐ selves."

Including the home game with Stuttgart on Saturday, Lev‐ erkusen is four games away from being the first German team to go unbeaten all season in the Bundesliga.

Tah and the rest of the defense have conceded in 30 league games just 20 goals — 17 fewer than Bayern Munich — and going unbeaten would be their crowning achievement.

"That means something for us because that's never happened before," Tah said. "We are racing ourselves because we are al‐ ready Bundesliga champions. But that's our own challenge now that we are playing for, and that's why we want to keep that momentum and keep winning."

Tah has been with Leverkusen since 2015 and is the club's sec‐ ond longest serving player. In that time, "the expectations of the club evolved" and Alonso has forged a competitive mindset, even in training, and rock‐solid team spirit, Tah said.

"He's expecting to win every game, no matter against who we play. He's never scared. He al‐ ways wants to win games and that's his mindset," Tah said of Alonso. Having a coach who won the World Cup and Champions League as a player opens up new possibilities in training. Clips from Alonso's sessions with Lev‐ erkusen have often gone viral as the coach casually plays pinpoint long passes or shows off his skills.

"He can show you what he wants to see from you and actu‐ ally sometimes it's really impres‐ sive how good his level still is," Tah said. "I don't want to take away (from) his tactical under‐ standing and explaining the team on the (tactics) board and stuff like that, because he's good at that as well, but of course he's Xabi Alonso. He was a big player. He won everything. And if he ex‐ plains something to you and shows it to you, it is different than a coach who has never played for a club before."

Leverkusen's historic season will end with the German Cup final against Kaiserslautern on May 25 in Berlin. That comes three days after a potential Eu‐ ropa League final against Ata‐ lanta or Marseille in Dublin.

Tah's unlikely to get much rest after that. His performances with Leverkusen have helped to kick‐ start what had been a stop‐start career with Germany. He's played every minute of Ger‐ many's last seven games, includ‐ ing every game since Julian Nagelsmann was appointed coach.

Tah believes Leverkusen's win‐ ning mindset could help Ger‐ many, too.

"That's my part," he said, "to bring that energy and that mind‐ set that we have here in Lev‐ erkusen right now to the national team and try to do my best to support the team, so that we can be successful."

Atletico Madrid battles Athletic Bilbao for 4th place in Spain and last Champions League berth

With Real Madrid cruising to the Spanish league title, the focus shifts to the battle for fourth place and the final Champions League berth.

Atletico Madrid hosts Athletic Bilbao on Saturday in a game that could go a long way to de‐ ciding which goes to Europe's elite competition next season.

Atletico holds fourth place, but Diego Simeone's side has only a three‐point advantage over Ath‐ letic in fifth with six games re‐ maining.

"Our big goal is to finish in the top four in La Liga," Atletico de‐ fender Stefan Savic said this week. "We have an important game against a rival for the fourth Champions League berth. We know how important the match is and I am sure we will play a great game and take the three points at home."

Athletic has not played in the Champions League since the 2014‐15 season, while Atletico is a regular participant.

Athletic, a team that fields play‐ ers only from or near Spain's northern Basque Country region, is enjoying its best campaign in years. It ended a four‐decade wait for a major title when it won the Copa del Rey this month.

"Saturday's game at Atletico Madrid is a final, for us," Athletic midfielder Iñigo Galarreta said. "This team wants to end the sea‐ son well and we have an exciting challenge ahead."