Borussia lose 0-1 against Leverkusen

Borussia lose 0-1 against Leverkusen

Personnel matters

Six players were unavailable: Karim Adeyemi (suspended after picking up a yellow card), Emre Can (torn cruciate ligament), Yan Couto (muscle strain), Felix Nmecha (torn knee ligament) and Filippo Mane (muscle injury). There were two changes from the 2-0 away win in Stuttgart as Julian Brandt and Fabio Silva started in place of Carney Chukwuemeka and Maximilian Beier. They initially took their places on the bench, as did four top prospects (Inacio, Albert, Kabar, Reggiani).

The matchBayer allowed Borussia to have possession, and they used it to mount a controlled attack, avoiding mistakes and exploiting the open spaces. Gaps kept appearing on the right wing. It was down this flank that the first big chance arose, when Svensson got a shot away from the left of the box, but Badé headed the curling effort away after Flekken had been beaten by the shot (17).

BVB looked focused and strong in the duels (winning 72% of them after 25 minutes), enjoying a correspondingly high share of possession (66%) and looking to shoot whenever the chance arose (6-2 shots on goal). The centre-backs tried to create numerical advantages against an opponent who mostly sat deep, although they showed a bit more courage after half an hour. They had a great chance following a mistake by Kobel, but Kofane shot straight into the arms of the BVB goalkeeper (32). Ten minutes later ,there was a second lapse in concentration when Bensebaini intercepted an attack just outside the penalty area but then misplaced his pass to Silva. Andrich spotted this, collected the ball and had a shot from 28 yards out that found the bottom left corner to make it 0-1 (42).

Due to an emergency medical intervention in the stadium, there was no support in the second half, and that seemed to rub off on the team, who went about their business very cautiously. Leverkusen now always seemed to be a step quicker. Kobel saved an effort from substitute Schick to prevent them going 0-2 down (60). Shortly before that, Beier had come on for Svensson, followed shortly afterwards by Chukwuemeka and Inacio for Silva and Sabitzer, and Özcan and Kabar came on for Bellingham and Ryerson in the final quarter of an hour.

It wasn’t until the 83rd minute that BVB had another chance to score. Chukwuemeka played the ball to Guirassy, who struck the crossbar with a powerful shot from a tight angle. In stoppage time, Brandt fired just wide of the right-hand post, and that was the final chance of the game.

OutlookBorussia Dortmund welcome TSG Hoffenheim next Saturday (15:30 CEST)

BORUSSIA DORTMUND – BAYER LEVERKUSEN 0-1 (0-1)

Bundesliga, matchday 29

BVB: Kobel – Anton, Schlotterbeck, Bensebaini – Ryerson (76, Kabar), Bellingham (76, Özcan), Svensson (59, Beier) – Sabitzer (64, Inacio), Brandt – Silva (64, Chukwuemeka), Guirassy

Substitutes: Meyer, Süle, Albert, Reggiani

Leverkusen: Flekken – Andrich, Badé, Tapsoba – Culbreath (74, Vazquez), Aleix Garcia, Palacios, Grimaldo – Maza (90+2, Tillman), Tella (74, Poku) – Kofane (54, Schick)

Substitutes: Blaswich, Oermann, Ben Seghir, Fernandez, Hofmann