BVB Eliminated from DFB-Pokal, Title Hopes Diminished โAfter Leverkusen Loss
Leverkusen, Germany – Borussia Dortmund’s season took a meaningful blow Tuesday night, falling 1-0 to Bayer Leverkusen inโ the DFB-Pokal Round of 16. The defeat,โ avenging leverkusen’s recent 2-1 Bundesliga loss to Dortmund, effectively ends BVB’s realistic chances of silverware this season. Ibrahim Maza scored the decisive goal in the 34th โคminute, sending Leverkusen into the quarter-finals.
The loss comes just nine days after Sporting director Lars Ricken publicly identified a DFB-Pokal victory as a โdesired farewell gift for outgoing club boss Hans-Joachim Watzke. โHowever, Dortmund delivered โa lackluster performance, notably in attack. New signing Fรกbio Silva started in place of Serhou Guirassy,but was later substituted afterโข a disappointing showing. Guirassy, who reportedly refused to shake hands with coach Niko Kovac โfollowingโค Saturday’s โmatch, wasโ brought on as a substitute but failed to impact the game, even walking past Kovac without a word and discarding his gloves after being โขsubbed off.
Kovac โคdownplayed speculation surrounding Guirassy’s benching,โฃ stating pre-match on Sky, “A lot of โฃpeople will speculate, but I wantโ to take the wind outโค of my sails rightโข away.โข That has nothing to do with the previous story, he didn’t play fromโ the start inโฃ the cup in Frankfurt. That has nothing to do with โขthe last game. We want to bring in a bit of freshness.”
The match itselfโฃ saw a sluggish first half from both sides,โ with Leverkusen capitalizing โขon the only โwell-executed attack. Dortmund’s Karim Adeyemi had two opportunitiesโ to equalize in the โ40th and 42nd minutes but was unable to convert.
Despite falling behind, Dortmund showed little urgency after the โคbreak. โA potential โsecond goal for Leverkusen by Martin Terrier โคin the 60th minute was โคdisallowed for offside. Kovac responded with a triple substitution, bringing on Guirassy, Julian Brandt, and Maximilian Beier, but the changes failed to spark aโ turnaround.
With theโ DFB-Pokal now out ofโค reach, and facing aโค significant gap in the Bundesliga โstandings, Dortmund’s hopes of champions โฃLeague qualification โappear increasingly fragile.
Other DFB-Pokal Round of 16 Results:
* Hertha BSC – 1. FC Kaiserslautern 6:1
* Borussia Mรถnchengladbachโ – FCโฃ St. Pauli 1:2
* RB Leipzig – 1. FC โMagdeburg 3:1
