Dortmund beat Cologne to keep faint title hopes alive, Leverkusen slip up | OneFootball

With a numerical advantage throughout the entire second half, Borussia Dortmund defeated Cologne 2-1 this Saturday, with more struggle than expected, and remained 11 points behind leaders Bayern Munich, with nine rounds left in the German Championship.

In this 25th round, Bayern Munich thrashed Borussia Mönchengladbach 4-1 on Friday and took another step toward their 35th title.

With all the pressure on their shoulders, Borussia Dortmund responded with a victory that keeps a glimmer of hope alive to prevent the Munich team from becoming champions, something that, in any case, has seemed like a distant dream since last weekend, after the home defeat in the Klassiker against their rival.

The victory over Cologne allows coach Niko Kovac's team to recover from last Saturday's setback and from their elimination in the Champions League two weeks ago, against Atalanta.

Striker Serhou Guirassy, who scored his 12th goal of the championship, opened the scoring for Borussia Dortmund at 16 minutes.

The sending off of Jahmai Simpson-Pusey in first-half stoppage time (45’+2) for a violent tackle on Maximilian Beier considerably hurt Cologne in the second half.

Beier extended the lead (60′), but Cologne pulled one back in the final stretch with Jakub Kaminski (88′), adding excitement to the final minutes until the whistle.

  See this photo on Instagram   A post shared by Borussia Dortmund (@bvb09)

Leverkusen stumbles and remains outside the G4

Earlier, Bayer Leverkusen complicated their fight for a spot in the next Champions by drawing 3-3 with Freiburg (8th).

With 44 points, Leverkusen sits in sixth place, which grants a spot in the Conference League, three points behind RB Leipzig (5th), who beat Augsburg (9th) 2-1.

Regarding fourth place, the last spot in the Champions League qualifying zone, the difference is also three points, since the team currently occupying it, Stuttgart, drew 2-2 with Mainz (14th).

Hoffenheim, another team in the race for the G4, consolidated third place thanks to a 4-2 win over bottom club Heidenheim, led by Austrian midfielder Alexander Prass, who scored twice in the match.

Leverkusen, who had gained some momentum midweek with a 1-0 win over Hamburg (10th) in a postponed match from the 17th round, failed to confirm their turnaround.

Before that game, the team had collected just one point from their previous two matches and, as a result, has had a very inconsistent season: they haven't managed two consecutive wins since January.

This Saturday, the result slipped away in the final minutes, when Leverkusen was leading 3-2 and Matthias Ginter (86′) scored Freiburg's equalizer.

Also in the final stretch came Leipzig's victory, who came from behind at home against Augsburg, but managed the comeback with Yan Diomandé (76′) and an own goal by Brazilian defender Arthur Chaves (90’+2).

Stuttgart also let three points slip away in stoppage time, when Mainz equalized 2-2 with a goal from Danny da Costa (90’+1).

*with content from AFP

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.