Silva misses a penalty
©IMAGO
Borussia Dortmund’s fan soul has calmed down again for the time being. With a lot of luck, BVB took an important step towards the knockout phase after three competitive games in a row without a win in the Champions League. Coach Niko Kovac’s team won 4-0 (1-0) against FC Villarreal on Tuesday after a weak first half – but the amount was too high against guests who had only ten players playing for a long time.
Serhou Guirassy ended his goal drought with a brace (45th + 2/54th), and Karim Adeyemi also scored again (58th) after the fuss surrounding his penalty notice for illegal possession of a weapon. Daniel Svensson scored Dortmund’s fourth goal (90+5). Villarreal’s Juan Foyth was shown a red card for deliberate handball on the line – a tough decision. BVB also had a lot of luck with their first three goals against the third-place team in LaLiga.
With ten points from five games, Dortmund increased their chances of a direct place in the round of 16. Villarreal, on the other hand, remains winless in the premier class of European football.
Before the double duel with former champions Bayer Leverkusen in the league (Saturday) and in the DFB Cup (Tuesday), Kovac rotated five times – once out of necessity because attacker Maximilian Beier was unavailable. Among other things, national striker Adeyemi was included in the starting eleven. The BVB coach justified the personnel changes at “Amazon Prime” with “freshness”: “We are playing at home today. We want to win the game.”
However, after three games without a win in a row, his team is longing for stability. This was also clearly noticeable in the first half. Dortmund started dominantly, but without creating any chances. As the game went on, the Spaniards became more courageous and posed problems for the nervous BVB. The game was boring.
Shortly before the tired kick went into the break, BVB took the lead by chance and luck. After a poke in the penalty area, Guirassy pushed the ball over the line with his head. The previous season’s Champions League top scorer, who had struggled so much in recent weeks, scored for the first time in all of November. The goal was checked because the ball had previously hit Waldemar Anton’s hand, but this was classified as unintentional.
With a lot of luck things continued after the break. Adeyemi completed a promising counterattack with a shot on goal that bounced off Foyth’s shoulder on the line. The Italian referee Davide Massa still gave a hand penalty, even stayed with it after studying the video images and then pulled out a red card for the Argentine, who had also jumped towards the ball. Guirassy only increased the score to 2-0 with a follow-up shot; Villarreal’s keeper Luiz Júnior had parried the penalty beforehand.
A short time later, against only ten guests, Adeyemi unintentionally made it 3-0. The 23-year-old was shot by Thomas Partey. Substitute Fábio Silva initially missed a great opportunity to make the result even clearer with a penalty in the final phase (82′). Svensson then succeeded.
Coup at Man City: Leverkusen dupes Guardiola’s rotation team
Efficient in attack, disciplined and with absolute will in defense: Bayer Leverkusen caused a small surprise in their first Champions League duel with Manchester City. Coach Kasper Hjulmand’s team won 2-0 (1-0) against star coach Pep Guardiola’s English top team. The Werkself thus took a big step in the race for the knockout phase in the premier class.
Leverkusen showed a disciplined game against the Citizens’ normally unstoppable offensive, which initially started after an XXL rotation without top scorer and ex-Dortmunder Erling Haaland, among others, and inflicted their first defeat of this Champions League season on the English team. Alejandro Grimaldo (23rd minute) and Patrik Schick (54th) scored the goals.
Guardiola made ten starting eleven changes in his 100th premier class game as City coach after the 2-1 defeat at Newcastle. In addition to Haaland, keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma was also rotated onto the bench. Bayer – with almost a dozen absences – started with Jarell Quansah, Jeanuël Belocian and Christian Kofane for the suspended Robert Andrich and Edmond Tapsoba and Jonas Hofmann, who was not registered for the competition.
Before the game, Hjulmand spoke of “one of the best teams in Europe”. Leverkusen started accordingly cautiously and deep in their own half, but wide awake. After around five minutes, Mark Flekken prevented the early deficit with a lightning reaction against Nathan Aké. The Werkself took a wait-and-see approach and waited for moments to switch. Ernest Poku scored Bayer’s first goal after a rescue effort (12′).
A short time later, a perfect transition game caused cheers among the approximately 1,500 Bayer fans who had traveled with them at the City of Manchester Stadium: After winning the ball, Malik Tillman passed to the right to Ibrahim Maza, who passed it to Kofane in the center of the penalty area. With his back to the goal, Kofane laid off the ball so that Grimaldo was free to shoot in the box and shot the ball unstoppably into the far corner with his left foot.
With the lead behind them, Bayer 04 were even more disciplined defensively for long stretches, while City looked for gaps with more possession. Shortly before the break, Flekken first saved with his right foot from Oscar Bobb in a turbulent scene in the visitors’ penalty area and was there again a little later when Tijjani Reijnders finished after an unfortunate slip and loss of the ball by Maza.
With the substitutions of Jérémy Doku, Phil Foden and Nico O’Reilly, the hosts wanted to provide more offensive tempo and impetus after the break. But despite the home team’s now bolder performance, Leverkusen remained courageous and rewarded themselves again: After an outstanding attack, Schick prevailed in an aerial duel with Aké after a Maza cross and headed into the goal from the right to make it 2-0.
City now pushed forward aggressively, while Bayer threw everything into defending their lead. When Haaland came onto the field in the 65th minute for ex-Frankfurt player Omar Marmoush, the City fans were loudly hopeful. Just a minute later, the Norwegian headed his first shot, but missed. Minutes later, Flekken stopped the top striker with a strong scene.
Haaland also repeatedly despaired of the strongly defending Leverkusen team, which could hardly get out of its own defensive third. Around ten minutes before the end, the first spectators left the stadium and missed, among other things, another strong save from Flekken after a free kick from Joker Rayan Cherki. Until the end, Bayer threw themselves into almost every shot and withstood the pressure.