The Bundesliga schedule designers actually meant well for Borussia Dortmund. BVB had not lost a Friday home game for 21 years, and with the guest appearance of the German champions Bayer Leverkusen on Friday evening, BVB had already kindly arranged the fourth of nine home games so far this season on the black and yellow lucky weekday.
But there are still higher powers than the German Football League, and even in the stronghold ‘Signal-Iduna-Park’ they are powerless against the common Westphalian flu virus. In addition to the injured Niklas Süle and the suspended Pascal Groß, the sick Emre Can, Nico Schlotterbeck, Waldemar Anton and Ramy Bensebaini – all defenders – were also sidelined at short notice on Friday evening.
The two young Almugera Kabar, 18, with 46 minutes of Bundesliga experience and Yannik Lührs, 21, with 36 minutes, and so it happened as it had to happen: after 39 Friday home games without Defeat (since a 1-0 loss against Schalke 04 on January 30, 2004) Dortmund lost to Leverkusen in their 40th Friday home game for the first time back home on this day of the week. After just 26 seconds, the Borussia team, who were initially hopelessly overwhelmed defensively, were 0-1 behind and at the break they were already 1-3 down – but in the end they made things exciting again and came up to 2-3, but were still unable to avert defeat. Jamie Gittens (12th) and Serhou Guirassy (79th, foul meter) scored for Dortmund; Nathan Tella (1st) and Patrik Schick (8th, 19th) for Leverkusen.
Qualification for the Champions League is increasingly out of reach for Dortmund
When Borussia had extended the contract with its sports director Sebastian Kehl until 2027 the day before on Thursday, managing director Lars Ricken linked this vote of trust to a clear sporting requirement. Ricken said: “We would like to continue to be represented in the Champions League in the next few years.” Kehl responded on the club’s website with the following sentence: “I can promise that I will do everything to ensure that this club continues to be successful to let it become.”
From this remarkable sentence structure it was easy to see, not only for linguists, that BVB has always lagged a little behind its goals in recent years. The really big success was actually always just in the making. And at the beginning of this year, Dortmund also has to make up for a gap that is gradually increasing in the fight for one of the four Champions League qualification places. The Champions League, in which Dortmund play the last two group games in January and then knockout games in February, is increasingly out of reach for the coming season.
The fact that almost the entire defensive department was unavailable against Leverkusen is unfortunate, but the BVB squad is also on edge given the double burden of the Bundesliga and European Cup – not even the only veteran with defensive strength still sitting on the bench was an alternative from the start: Marcel Sabitzer was not yet fully fit again after a torn muscle fiber.
And so Borussia Dortmund is currently stalling in its attempt to continue to be successful.
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