With 11 minutes remaining, Nigerian attacker Victor Boniface’s goal gave Bayer Leverkusen a 1-1 home draw against Borussia Dortmund on Sunday, preserving the league-leading team’s undefeated record for the current campaign.
Julian Ryerson gave Dortmund the lead after just five minutes, and the visitors appeared to be on track to become the first team this season to defeat Leverkusen in any kind of tournament.
Patrik Schick was summoned off the bench by Leverkusen boss Xabi Alonso with time running out, and the decision paid off right away as the Czech forward found Boniface for the equalizer.
An “unhappy” Leverkusen midfielder Florian Wirtz told DAZN, “Even if we managed to equalise, when you see the match we would have hoped for better and we should have done better.”
Dortmund manager Edin Terzic praised his team’s defence in the “fair result,” but hit out at the Video Assistant Referee, who declined to intervene despite what seemed like a late foul on winger Karim Adeyemi.
“We discuss VAR every week, we discuss clear wrong decisions, about handball and foul play, but that wasn’t enough?” Terzic said of the incident.
“That’s what really upsets me because it is not fair.”
Leverkusen ends the round three points ahead of Bayern Munich on the standings thanks to the draw, but the Bavarians still have a game in hand because their encounter against Union Berlin on Saturday had to be postponed due to heavy snowfall.
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Alonso told reporters that his players “did enough to win” and that they should “be realistic” about the outcome. This season, his club has won 18 and drew two of its 20 games.
“We know what we’ve done until now and we know what we must do. The path is clear and the players are convinced of the way forward.”
Alonso made eight changes to the XI which won 2-0 at Swedish side Hacken on Thursday, which secured them top spot in their Europa League group.
Coming into the match 10 points behind Leverkusen after just 12 matches, Dortmund was hit with a pre-match wave of the flu, ruling out several first-teamers including Donyell Malen, Niklas Suele and Ramy Bensebaini.
Fresh from Tuesday’s 3-1 win at AC Milan which secured progress to the Champions League knockouts, Dortmund burst out of the blocks, taking the lead after just five minutes through Ryerson.
With his back to goal, Niclas Fuellkrug held the ball up perfectly before back-heeling to Ryerson, who threaded the ball into the goal.
For the remainder of the first half, Leverkusen upped the ante, but they were unable to equalize when VAR disqualified Wirtz’s stunning 45-minute goal for a slight offside.
In the second half, Dortmund withstood intense pressure from Leverkusen until Alonso introduced Schick, who had played just one minute in the league so far this year.
Less than a minute later, the Czech striker assisted Leverkusen in drawing even when he slid a pass past the Dortmund defense to Boniface, who scored with a close-range tap.
AFP
