Borussia D – Bayer, Getty Images January 10, 2025, 11:44 p.m

Germans are very fond of the festive period of Christmas and New Year, the latter is called Silvester, so football takes a back seat at this time. However, sooner or later the Bundesliga does return, and this year the second part of the national championship was opened immediately by the central match of the sixteenth round. Bayer Leverkusen paid a visit to Borussia Dortmund.

However, inside Nuri Shahin’s team, during the time when everyone was resting, the situation was no longer like a kindergarten – someone somewhere caught a viral disease, and as a result, many players fell ill. Some have recovered, some have not, some are injured, some are disqualified. As a result, “bumblebees” put up such a line of defense, which under other circumstances would be called simply strange.

And the “pharmacists” were well aware of this, so they rushed to press immediately from the start of the game, and already at the 26th second, a mistake by Koutu during a pass from the right wing gave the ball to Tapsoba, who threw it to Andrich, who found Tella near the penalty area, after which there was a hit in the near upper corner. It was predictable. But not as fast!

After that, Bayer spent the rest of the game building its game according to a monotonous scenario – Xabi Alonso’s team didn’t need the ball, so it was possible to give it to the opponents and just wait for them to miss one of the visitors again in transition phases. As it happened in the eighth minute, when Incapier’s cross from the left flank on the far side was completed by Schick.

An absolutely similar ball, but from the other side of the field, will come to Kobel’s goal at the end of the stretch in 20 minutes of the game, but before that, Bayer himself will make a mistake behind. Immediately after his team’s second goal, Andrih wanted to stop Koutu’s cross from the right wing so much that he independently directed the ball into the distance at the foot of Gittens, who did not waste his chance.

After all these events, the audience could only wonder how Shahin’s team sometimes breaks through the indicator of 79% possession of the ball, but at the same time concedes two goals and creates at the same time a minimum of dangerous moments. However, they still had a place, and at the end of the first half Adeyemi had the opportunity to reduce the gap again, but neither he nor Bayer from offside, the goalkeeper of Leverkusen never broke through.

In the second half, Alonso did not change anything in terms of tactics, and everything was leading to the fact that the time would come for the debut of Ukrainian Maksym Stepanov in the Bundesliga. But no. Schick didn’t close the game with his hat-trick in the 61st minute, shooting instead of any corner of an almost empty net right into Kobel at the end of Frimpong’s pass from the right edge of the field, and then Bayer created problems for himself in the equal position.

Tapsoba decided that in the 75th minute he should raise his hands as high as possible and prevent Duranville from getting to the ball on the left flank of his own penalty area, and although the referees immediately played the episode, there is VAR. Girassi scored from the penalty spot in the lower right corner and the game was again intrigued. Not too big, because Dortmund still have problems deeper than the simple absence of some performers.

In the next round, Borussia will play away to Holstein, while Bayer Leverkusen will host Mainz.

Borussia D — Bayer 2:3
Goals: Baino-Gittens, 12, Girassi, 79 (pen.) – Tella, 1, Schick, 8, 19

Borussia D: Kobel — Coutou, Luers, Ryerson (Campbell, 89), Kabar (Zabitzer, 79) — Nmecha — Adeyemi (Duranville, 63), Brandt, Baino-Gittens (Malen, 79) — Bayer (Reina, 79), Girassi .

Bayer: Hradecki — Tapsoba, Ta, Incapje — Mukiele, Andrih, Xhaka, Grimaldo (Palacios, 88) — Frimpong (Arthur, 89), Tella (Terrier, 74) — Schick (Wirtz, 63).

Warning: Nmecha — Shik, Tapsoba