Borussia Dortmund Bundesliga top duel
Leverkusen’s incredible success story continues
Status: 21.04.2024 | Reading time: 5 minutes
A week after winning their first German championship, Bayer Leverkusen seems to be stumbling. At Borussia Dortmund, the Werkself’s miraculous record streak is in danger of coming to an end. But the team hits back again in stoppage time.
Bayer Leverkusen shows no signs of weakness even after winning the title early. The team is continuing to build its European record series and has now been undefeated for 45 competitive games in a row. Despite a rather dreary performance, the new German champions continued their impressive success story with a 1-1 (0-0) draw in the Bundesliga top game at Borussia Dortmund. In contrast, fifth-placed Dortmund suffered a setback in the fight for Champions League qualification.
The hopes of a spectacle between the two most recently successful teams were not fulfilled. A week after the championship party against Bremen and just three days after the exhausting semi-final in the Europa League at West Ham, the Bayer team lacked freshness and wit this time, but not the necessary concentration. In front of 81,365 spectators at Signal Iduna Park, Niclas Füllkrug (81st) and Josip Stanisic (90th + 7) ensured the deserved draw on Sunday.
Remarkable: Leverkusen scored 20 competitive goals this season from minute 86 onwards. And respectable: Bayer has only given up points in five games this Bundesliga season; this only happened twice against Borussia Dortmund (two draws). “It’s not easy on the head when you’re already German champion. But we have a challenge: We want to stay undefeated this season. Dortmund’s goal came as a surprise. I don’t know if they even had a chance to score. We had very clear chances to score and got into the box a lot more. That’s why the point wasn’t stolen at all,” said Leverkusen midfielder Granit Xhaka.
BVB coach Terzic contradicts Füllkrug
This at least met with contradiction in the analysis of Dortmund’s goalscorer Füllkrug. He said that if the whole game was looked at, his team “was the better one and deserved to win. It feels humbling when you concede the decisive goal so late. Because that could have been easily prevented.” After a corner, Stanisic climbed the highest without any pressure and scored with a header. BVB goalkeeper Gregor Kobel had no chance.
Dortmund coach Edin Terzic didn’t want to agree with Füllkrug’s canon even after the end of the game. He was asked by DAZN whether he also saw it as Dortmund being the better team and should have won the game. To be honest, Terzic replied, “not quite. It was a game with very few chances to score. It wasn’t a good game from either side. We ourselves were far too passive and had far too little speed in the game. In terms of performance, it wasn’t what we expected. I didn’t like what we did at all. “It’s definitely two points that hurt.” Especially since third-placed VfB Stuttgart had surprisingly lost at Werder Bremen (1-2) on Sunday afternoon and BVB could have reduced the gap to four points with a win.
In contrast to their exhilarating performance in the quarter-finals of the European premier class against Atético Madrid five days earlier, BVB fell far short of their potential. The division of points puts the Terzic team in dire straits ahead of the duel with their neighbors from Leipzig, who are now two points better in the table, on the coming matchday (Saturday, 3:30 p.m., in the WELT sports ticker).
Leverkusen initially spares Wirtz at BVB
Even without the rested Florian Wirtz, who initially sat on the bench, the Bayer team controlled the action from the start. The young star was one of five professionals that coach Alonso rotated out of the starting eleven after the game at West Ham. The Dortmund team, which had only changed in one position, found it difficult to get into the game.
Because both teams showed too much respect and were afraid to take risks, the entertainment value of the game was limited for a long time. Although the guests continued to dominate the game, they were unable to create any chances to score despite all the advantages they had in possession of the ball. Dortmund’s attack efforts were even poorer. Bayer goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky remained almost unemployed in the first half hour.
It only became livelier shortly before halftime. This was primarily thanks to Bayer professional Alejandro Grimaldo. But both the Spaniard’s long-range shot (36′) and free kick (39′) went just over the goal. This also encouraged BVB to take a more aggressive approach. Marcel Sabitzer missed the best chance of the game so far when he missed Hradecky with a shot from 14 meters after Julian Ryerson’s preparatory work. It was in keeping with the mediocre level of the game that Ian Maatsen stepped over the ball during the follow-up attempt.
Even after the restart, controlled build-up play prevailed on both sides without much speed. Goal chances only arose from standard situations, such as Grimaldo’s free kick parried by BVB keeper Gregor Kobel (57′). In the 68th minute, the Dortmund goalkeeper cleared the ball against Nathan Tella in desperate need. But shortly before the end of the game, BVB striker Füllkrug struck ice cold. After Sabitzer’s cross, he volleyed the ball into the goal.
Things got turbulent in the final phase. After a scramble between several players, Victor Boniface initially saw red, but referee Daniel Siebert took it back. And then Bayer scored to equalize: Stanisic scored from a corner to tie the game late.