Dortmund slumps to second defeat from two Bundesliga games under new coach Niko Kovać

By Canadian Press on February 15, 2025.

BERLIN (AP) — Georgios Masouras scored twice in two minutes for bottom club Bochum to upset Borussia Dortmund 2-0 in their Bundesliga derby on Saturday.

Masouras stunned the visitor with his first goal for Bochum since his winter switch from Olympiakos, then capitalized almost straight away on a huge error from Dortmund defender Niklas Süle to grab his second in the first half.

Süle, who made his first start since December after recovering from an ankle injury, sent a back pass straight into Masouras’ path for the Greek forward to fire the ball past Gregor Kobel in the Dortmund goal.

Bochum’s win lifted the team off the bottom till Sunday at least, pending fellow struggler Holstein Kiel’s visit to Eintracht Frankfurt.

It was the second defeat in as many Bundesliga games for Dortmund under new coach Niko Kovać. Dortmund stayed 11th and risked falling further behind in its quest for Champions League qualification.

Bochum had a host of injuries with four important players including first-choice goalkeeper all out.

Stuttgart failed to capitalize on Leipzig’s draw in Augsburg the night before as it lost at home to Wolfsburg 2-1 despite substitute Nick Woltemade’s wonderful opener in the 72nd minute.

Leipzig remained fourth, while Stuttgart dropped two points off the last place for Champions League qualification.

Borussia Mönchengladbach won at Union Berlin 2-1, and Freiburg won at St. Pauli 1-0 thanks to a late own goal from Philipp Treu.

Defending champion Bayer Leverkusen was hosting league leader Bayern Munich later with eight points between the two rivals before kickoff.

___

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

Ciarán Fahey, The Associated Press