Bayer Leverkusen 0-2 Dortmund: Borussia Dortmund has fully invested in the title race. In the BayArena, the yellow-blacks ended the excellent series of host Bayer Leverkusen with a hit from Karim Adeyemi and an own goal.
Most important news beforehand: Sébastien Haller in the base. The Ivorian missed the first half of the season because he was diagnosed with testicular cancer, but the striker who came over from Ajax was finally able to make his basic debut for Dortmund on Sunday afternoon. We found Donyell Malen on the bench with the visitors. As usual, Xabi Alonso had a place for Jeremie Frimpong in his starting eleven, the trio Daley Sinkgraven, Mitchel Bakker and Timothy Fosu-Mensah sat on the bench next to the Basque football icon.
The home team started with fierce pressure, without many opportunities being noted. Florian Wirtz put Dortmund goalie Gregor Kobel to the test after fifteen minutes. But he showed himself to be extremely agile and tapped the ball out of the corner. Dortmund slowly grew in the game, after more than half an hour it paid off. Good combination between Julian Brandt and Jude Bellingham, Haller with a smart transfer and Adeyemi was able to score his first Bundesliga goal.
2nd half
Dortmund took a more business-like approach from that point on and made it to the break without damage. Leverkusen also started stronger after the break, but the first good counter-attack resulted in the 0-2. Bellingham was handed a ball but came too late, unlucky Edmond Tapsoba got the ball on his shin and scored in his own goal. Frimpong then had to be alert again, because the defender almost scored his second own goal of the afternoon.
Leverkusen did try. Moussa Diaby made a good attempt to make the game exciting, but the excellent goalkeeper Kobel was unbeatable. So the points went on the bus for the short return journey to Dortmund. Borussia is now fourth, three points behind leader Bayern Munich. Matthijs de Ligt’s team dropped points again on Saturday: the title race is in full swing. Next week Dortmund awaits the top match against SC Freiburg at home.
