Before the game, Borussia Dortmund coach Edin Terzic was of course asked how much fun it would be for him to end Bayer Leverkusen’s incredible run of 44 competitive games without defeat. “We want to win,” Terzic replied – “because we need the three points.” BVB wants to take part in the Champions League again next season, in the semi-finals of which they can play against Paris Saint-Germain at the beginning of May.
Dortmund didn’t get these three points on Sunday evening, so they couldn’t end Leverkusen’s impressive series and remain in fifth place in the table. Although they took a late 1-0 lead thanks to a goal from Niclas Füllkrug in the 81st minute, Bayer’s chronic comebackers scored the deserved 1-1 much later in the 97th minute with a header from Josip Stanisic (0: 0)-compensation. So that was their 45th competitive game without defeat. What the Leverkusen team didn’t manage to achieve was their eleventh Bundesliga win in a row and their eighth Bundesliga win in a row – but they were able to cope with that. Their historic goal of becoming the first German champion without any defeat remains possible.
Their 14th goal in a competitive game in added time provoked a huge crowd of cheers from the Leverkusen team in a game that was actually no longer important. “It wasn’t easy for the head because we were already champions,” said Granit Xhaka at Dazn, “but our challenge is to become champions undefeated.” They saved this chance with the late header from Stanisic, Leverkusen’s loan from FC Bayern. “Incredible,” the Munich native called it, but immediately revealed the reason for the latent déjà vu: “We just always believe in it until the end.”
The fact that Dortmund were able to secure the second of the seven draws that Leverkusen has allowed so far this season after the 1-1 draw in the first leg was no consolation for Füllkrug. “That feels modest right now,” said the BVB goalscorer shortly after the final whistle, “we deserved the win.” However, his coach Terzic did not want to confirm this. At first he simply said he was “not satisfied” with his team’s performance, but then went on to say: “I didn’t like it at all.”
Dortmund is lucky that there is no red for Can and a penalty for Leverkusen
It was clear that Leverkusen were already champions because Florian Wirtz, Victor Boniface, Patrik Schick and Exequiel Palacios were on the bench at the start. But that didn’t change the dominance in Leverkusen’s game. They were largely the better team. In the 30th minute, Dortmund were lucky that there was no penalty for Leverkusen after Emre Can stepped on Jeremie Frimpong’s heel with an open sole on the penalty area line. Penalties and even red would have been conceivable – but not for the referee Daniel Siebert and the video assistant Johann Pfeifer.
A backheel trick from Julian Brandt, a cross from Marcel Sabitzer and a direct pass from Füllkrug at the second post resulted in the somewhat surprising 1-0 in the 81st minute. Stanisic’s equalizer came in the seventh minute of eight minutes of stoppage time after a corner from substitute Wirtz.
Next Saturday, Dortmund will play an explosive direct duel against fourth-placed Leipzig. But then they will have to do without Ian Maatsen and Emre Can, who both received their fifth yellow card on Sunday and are suspended.