Bitter bankruptcy in the spectacle game: Oh woe, oh woe, BVB

Tuesday, January 19, 2021

Bitter bankruptcy in the spectacle game
Oh dear, oh dear, BVB

Was that it for Borussia Dortmund? After a well-deserved defeat in a spectacular duel at Bayer Leverkusen, the runner-up is threatened with farewell to the Bundesliga championship championship race halfway through the season. Bayer, on the other hand, is ending its "mini-crisis".

Thanks to the outstanding Moussa Diaby and his young star Florian Wirtz, Bayer Leverkusen ended its "mini-crisis" and remains on the heels of the first round champions FC Bayern, while Borussia Dortmund loses connection in the title fight. Bayer defeated BVB deservedly 2-1 (1-0) in a very interesting and often fast-paced duel and celebrated the longed-for success after four Bundesliga games without a win.

As a result, Leverkusen climbed to second place and reduced the gap to the record champions to four points for at least one night. Dortmund is already seven behind Bayern with 29 points and has to worry about slowly slipping out of the international ranks. Diaby (14th) gave the Werkself the lead with his third goal of the season. Ex-Leverkusen's Julian Brandt (67th), who had not met for 366 days, equalized for Dortmund. The 17-year-old Wirtz (80th) made the decision late after preliminary work by Diaby.

"It runs through the season that we are not able to maintain the level for 90 minutes," Brandt complained to Sky. But he didn't want to write off the championship yet: "We're not satisfied with the number of points, but the season is long. But we should start a series. A lot can happen in 17 games, but we're a long way off." Meanwhile, BVB captain Marco Reus spoke of a "brutally open" game. "We gave Leverkusen lots of open spaces, lots of counter opportunities." After the 1-1 draw, however, his team was "on the trigger". "Then you have to try to kill the game. We didn't make it. A disappointing evening for us."

Bosz rotates Werkself to success

Bayer coach Peter Bosz made major changes after the 1-0 defeat at Union Berlin. Captain Charles Aranguiz and Wirtz celebrated their starting XI comeback. Aranguiz stepped in for Julian Baumgartlinger (muscular problems), who was struggling at short notice, and Wirtz pushed Kerem Demirbay to the bench. In the storm, Lucas Alario was preferred to the recently weak Patrik Schick. At BVB, coach Edin Terzic was forced to act in two positions: The suspended Emre Can was replaced by Thomas Delaney. Manuel Akanji started for the injured Axel Zagadou.

The BayArena kicked off lively on freshly laid lawn. Wirtz tried it directly from a distance against BVB keeper Roman Bürki (2nd). In return, Bayer goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky showed good timing when he left his penalty area to run the ball off the onrushing Erling Haaland. In the two subsequent attempts by Marco Reus (3rd / 6th), who had always scored in the past three games against Leverkusen, the Finn did not have to intervene. Likewise Bürki when Alario missed (9th).

Bayer strikes mercilessly

From the hectic initial phase, a tactical game developed in which Bayer exploited the first positional error of the BVB central defense. Diaby brilliantly accepted a long through pass from Leon Bailey that was well worth seeing and deliberately pushed in against Bürki.

Dortmund lacked ideas in the offensive game. Haaland missed the best chance for black and yellow at the far post (24th). In addition, the Dortmund defense continued to have major problems with balls behind the chain. With a double chance of the outstanding Diaby and Alario (27th), Bürki and Akanji prevented the deserved two-goal lead. Bayer continued to push hard until half time, Dortmund looked knocked out. After Diaby left the disappointing Hummels in a duel, Bürki was again on the spot (35th). Terzic became more restless after the break, but his team was better: Jadon Sancho (55th) and Thomas Meunier (56th) were too harmless with their chances. Likewise Haaland, who improved in the second half.

Then Brandt struck. A minute later, Tapsoba saved himself on the line against him – Bürki shone against Diaby on the other side.