Bayer Leverkusen builds fresh momentum with 10-game winning run as Dortmund hits trouble

By Canadian Press on January 16, 2025.

Bayer Leverkusen’s on one of those runs again. Borussia Dortmund looks a shadow of its former self.

The two standout German teams from last season are on opposite trajectories as the pressure mounts in the Bundesliga and Champions League.

Ten wins in a row in all competitions have allowed Xabi Alonso’s Leverkusen — the defending domestic league champion — to put pressure on Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga and sit fourth in the 36-team Champions League table.

Sure, it’s not last season’s record 51-game unbeaten run, and Leverkusen is still four points off Bayern, but it certainly means Alonso remains among world soccer’s most in-demand coaches ahead of Leverkusen’s Bundesliga game Saturday with Borussia Moenchengladbach.

Dortmund misery

The same can’t be said of Nuri Sahin, in charge at last year’s Champions League finalist, Dortmund. His team has just one win from its last seven games going back to November and hit a new low in a 4-2 loss to relegation-threatened Holstein Kiel on Tuesday.

Sahin called the performance “shameful” and said he took responsibility as the coach. Dortmund is now 10th, though that is still just five points off the Champions League qualifying places.

Friday’s game against Eintracht Frankfurt could be vital to any hopes of a recovery.

The club has said Sahin’s job isn’t under threat. Sahin has weathered tough times before in his seven-month tenure, and there isn’t an obvious successor.

Firing him could also prompt scrutiny of the Dortmund management’s decision to opt for Sahin in the first place, despite his relative inexperience, and how it handled the relationship with his predecessor Edin Terzic, who resigned after leading the team to the Champions League final in June.

Adapting to thrive

When Leverkusen beat Dortmund 3-2 last week, it shed some light on how the two teams have coped with adversity.

Leverkusen has been missing first-choice striker Victor Boniface since a hamstring injury in November but in his absence Patrik Schick has stepped up. The Czech forward has scored 11 goals in the last two months to keep Leverkusen on course. The main surprise from Leverkusen’s 1-0 win over Mainz on Tuesday was arguably that the goal came from an Alejandro Grimaldo free kick, not Schick.

Dortmund, meanwhile, has a worrying tendency to lose concentration for extended spells. Even with several players out with illness, conceding three goals to Leverkusen in the opening 19 minutes was alarming, especially since Dortmund had over 80% possession in that time. Conceding three against Kiel in a 20-minute spell was another low.

Bayern, meanwhile, hosts Wolfsburg on Saturday having yet to concede a goal in 2025. All has stayed calm in Munich despite plenty of potential distractions as speculation mounts over the future of several players with soon-to-expire contracts — including Leroy Sané, who scored twice in Bayern’s 5-0 demolition of Hoffenheim on Wednesday.

___

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

James Ellingworth, The Associated Press