DFB POKAL PLAYER RATINGS | Borussia Dortmund 0-1 Bayer Leverkusen: BVB miss out on a realistic chance of a trophy as they fail to progress

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For the second time in four days, Borussia Dortmund played Bayer Leverkusen, but unlike Saturday’s meeting, this took place at the Signal Iduna Park. 

If you want an easy summary of this game, it was the same as the game on Saturday, but the roles were reversed. Dortmund were the more dominant side, but Leverkusen were more efficient in front of goal. 

Karim Adeyemi continued his strong recent form and was the brightest of die Schwarzgelben’s players in the first half, with the ball seemingly falling to him every time. 

However, it was Leverkusen that would take the lead when Ibrahim Maza’s smart work in the BVB box gave him enough space to get a shot off, which beat Gregor Kobel. The Algerian continues his strong form, where not only was he Leverkusen’s best player at the weekend, but he was their best player last week against Manchester City, and is by far their most important player full stop. 

Adeyemi would again have a chance to equalise, but would fire wide. 

The second half saw Dortmund step up their pressure on the Leverkusen defence, but they were unable to bypass them as Kasper Hjulmand’s side put in another strong defensive performance.

Leverkusen had thought that they had even doubled their lead when a well-worked team was finished off by Martin Terrier. However, a Werkself player was offside in the build-up, so the goal would be ruled out and give the hosts a lifeline.  

However, what Leverkusen have shown over recent weeks is that not only can they play well on the attacking front, when it is called for they can bunker down and shut out their opposition, and that was what they were able to do here, as they comfortably limited Dortmund’s attacking threat.

Another setback for Dortmund: 

The loss for Dortmund means they have missed out on the only trophy that they could realistically win this season. Especially when you are trying to keep a player of the calibre of Nico Schlotterbeck, and you fall at this hurdle, it does not help your chances in convincing someone like him to stay. 

While Kasper Hjulmand’s Leverkusen team continue to go from strength to strength. The game at the weekend was clearly a setback, but as Simon Rolfes put it to GGFN last week, he expects this team to learn from games like at the weekend. Considering their performance today, they did so once again and have shown they have the calibre to be a strong contender for the Pokal this season. 

Borussia Dortmund:

Gregor Kobel (5), Julian Ryerson (5), Emre Can (6), Waldemar Anton (6), Nico Schlotterbeck (5), Daniel Svensson (6), Jobe Bellingham (5), Felix Nmecha (5), Carney Chukwuemeka (5), Karim Adeyemi (6), Fabio Silva (4)

Others: Serhou Guirassy (5), Maximilian Beier (5), Julian Brandt (5), Pascal Groß (5)