Borussia Dortmund’s narrative of new consistency and stability under Niko Kovac will be put to the test in the doubleheader against Leverkusen in the league and cup.
Defeats against FC Bayern and Manchester City, draws against RB Leipzig and Juventus Turin: Borussia Dortmund has yet to prove that it can beat the absolute top teams this season. Against Bayer Leverkusen, first in the Bundesliga and then in the DFB Cup within three days, it now has the chance to successfully demonstrate its stability under coach Niko Kovac against a top team.
“Leverkusen is a top opponent, but both teams know who they are up against, so it doesn’t matter whether the opponent is big or small, every Bundesliga game is difficult,” Kovac said, dismissing the statistics ahead of the first meeting on Saturday (6:30 p.m./Sky). “We have the qualities to be successful there, just like last year.” If they fail to do so, BVB will have gone three Bundesliga games without a win – a first under Kovac. The “return leg” of the cup round of 16 is already scheduled for Tuesday (9 p.m./ARD and Sky) in Dortmund.
While only one point separates the two teams in third and fourth place in the league, the doubleheader appears to be a particularly important indicator for BVB. The match may provide the answer to a suspicion – namely, that the 4-0 win against Villarreal is deceptive. The landslide victory in the midst of the first results crisis under stabilizer Kovac tasted more like whitewashing than a full-bodied victory. “Borussia Dortmund between relief and whitewashing,” headlined Der Tagesspiegel, while Der Spiegel offered a similar assessment with “With a lot of hand and little foot.”
In fact, Kovac’s BVB was on display in its purest form: unspectacular in terms of play, convincing in the final result. Under the 54-year-old, extremes and extreme outliers are rare, both in a positive and negative sense. The former credo of “full throttle events” has long since given way to pragmatism.
“There is a lack of really great moments of brilliance, of opponents being taken apart with skill,” Mats Hummels complained afterwards on Amazon Prime. Dortmund hardly exudes any spirit with the ball. Their style of play is too static, their approach too risk-averse. “You get the feeling that you’re watching a stable team that does the basics on the pitch. But that’s all you see, in a negative sense,” added the former fan favorite. In Leverkusen, on the other hand, they seem to be a whole step further in their development. After a bumpy start to the season, the XXL turnaround is taking effect surprisingly quickly. The respectable 2-0 win in Manchester was their fourth competitive victory in a row. Under Kasper Hjulmand, the team has only lost two of 15 games, against PSG (7-2) and Bayern Munich (3-0), but they didn’t stand a chance in either case.
Hjulmand wants to build on “a night we will remember for a long time” in the league as well. “We have so much potential, we can get even better. A win like the one against City is fuel for our development,” the Dane warned.
In fact, Leverkusen seem to have momentum on their side thanks to their high-flying form under Hjulmand. In the recent past, however, Borussia have become the Werkself’s bogey team: Bayer have won only one of their last six league encounters. No other German team has managed that during Leverkusen’s most successful phase in the club’s history.
