Tension until the end
BVB defeats Leverkusen
Updated 11/29/2025 – 8:34 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
In the league’s top duel, Borussia prevailed against the “Werkself”. BVB takes advantage of its chances – but in the end it will be exciting again.
Borussia Dortmund is now third in the Bundesliga table – thanks to a win in the prestigious duel. BVB won the top game on Saturday evening at Bayer Leverkusen 2-1 (1-0) and thus moved past their rivals. Aarón Anselmino (41′) and Karim Adeyemi (65′) scored for coach Niko Kovač’s team, who took advantage of their chances. For Bayer, Christian Kofane was only able to shorten the score (83′).
BVB thus secured its first point victory in the double duel with Bayer, and on Tuesday (from 9 p.m. in the live ticker on t-online) the “second leg” of the round of 16 of the DFB Cup is scheduled to take place in Dortmund. Leverkusen’s winning streak, however, broke after four competitive game wins in a row, and Bayer missed out on making it to second place.
The guests, who had only lost one of the last six league games against the “Werkself”, were lagging a lot and were lucky that Ernest Poku (10th) carelessly let Leverkusen’s lead slip.
Bayer coach Kasper Hjulmand was again able to rely on captain Robert Andrich, Edmond Tapsoba and Jonas Hofmann. Leverkusen controlled the game with the trio that was missing in the Champions League duel with Manchester City, but four days after the exclamation mark in the premier class, they too rarely caused a goal threat.
BVB, who were largely harmless offensively, improved after just under half an hour. However, the lead almost came out of nowhere: Anselmino scored with a header from a free-kick cross, and Bayer goalkeeper Mark Flekken appeared hesitant. On the other hand, Gregor Kobel had no trouble with a Poku finish (45th).
Malik Tillmann (55th) and Patrik Schick (56th) had the first shots in the second half. However, the best chance arose for Dortmund, who had recently lost a lead late in the league in Hamburg (1:1) and against VfB Stuttgart (3:3). Flekken strongly parried the header from striker Serhou Guirassy, who was substituted shortly afterwards (59′).
Adeyemi did better, prevailing in a header duel against Loic Badé for BVB’s second goal. Jonas Hofmann (71′) had the quick answer on his feet, but hit the crossbar. On the other side, Julian Brandt (72nd/75th) missed the next goal for Dortmund, who defended with concentration. That took revenge: Kofane tipped the ball into the goal after a cross, Nico Schlotterbeck came too late. Bayer now built up pressure again, but BVB managed to win over time.