BERLIN — Bayer Leverkusen has faced a significant setback in its defense of the Bundesliga title, while Borussia Dortmund’s struggles have persisted during Niko Kova?’s first match as coach.
Leverkusen played to a 0-0 draw against Wolfsburg on Saturday, which allowed Bayern Munich to extend its lead at the top of the table to eight points, just ahead of a crucial match between the two teams set for next weekend in Leverkusen. Historically, no team has managed to overcome an eight-point deficit at this point in the Bundesliga season to secure the championship. Bayern triumphed over Werder Bremen with a convincing 3-0 victory on Friday.
“The distance is now uncomfortably large,” expressed Leverkusen’s goalkeeper Lukáš Hrádecký. “This highlights the contrast to last season; the matches we’re drawing this year were victories for us previously.”
Leverkusen’s head coach, Xabi Alonso, made significant adjustments by introducing eight new players to the lineup that narrowly defeated Cologne to advance to the German Cup semifinals. Star midfielder Florian Wirtz was relegated to the bench, and new addition Mario Hermoso made his debut as a starter. Only a trio of players—Nordi Mukiele, Jonathan Tah, and Granit Xhaka—retained their positions from the last match against Cologne.
In a disappointing performance, Dortmund fell 2-1 at home to Stuttgart during Kova?’s inaugural match as head coach, marking the eighth league loss for the team this season.
Kova? had a rough start when his bag got caught while he attempted to exit the team bus before kick-off. Two players transferred from Stuttgart to Dortmund during the summer played pivotal roles in the goals scored by their former club. Defender Waldemar Anton inadvertently scored an own goal when he deflected a cross from Chris Führich shortly after halftime. Furthermore, ex-Stuttgart striker Serhou Guirassy’s defensive error contributed to the second goal, allowing Julian Chabot to net for the visitors in the 61st minute.
Dortmund’s misfortunes continued when Alexander Nübel managed to deflect Jamie Gittens’ shot onto the crossbar. Julian Brandt salvaged a goal for Dortmund in the 81st minute, but the match ended bitterly as he squandered a promising free-kick opportunity that sailed well above the target. Julian Ryerson also ended up receiving a second yellow card for his reaction to a foul.
“Football stirs emotions, which is why we attend matches. If it weren’t so, we might as well go to the theater, where emotions are likely to be less intense,” Kova? remarked regarding Ryerson’s red card. This marked Kova?’s seventh loss as a coach in matches involving Dortmund, this time occurring while managing the home team.
“The outcome was the only disappointing aspect. Everything else was perfectly fine,” Kova? stated.
Croatian forward Marin Ljubi?i? made a spectacular debut with Union Berlin, contributing a goal and an assist in a dominant 4-0 victory over Hoffenheim after coming on as a substitute.
This win represented Union’s largest margin of victory this season and broke a pattern of struggling to score more than two goals in a match, having failed to find the net in four of their last five encounters. Benedict Hollerbach opened the scoring, followed by Ljubi?i?’s contribution just two minutes into his time on the field. Andrej Ili? secured his first Bundesliga goal as Union’s third, and Ljubi?i? assisted Hollerbach for the final goal.
Freiburg also achieved a victory, narrowly defeating Heidenheim 1-0, while Mainz played to a goalless draw with Augsburg. Meanwhile, Borussia Mönchengladbach was set to compete against Eintracht Frankfurt later that day.
