Drei Erkenntnisse aus Borussia Dortmunds qualvoller 0:2-Niederlage gegen RB Leipzig
Borussia Dortmund disappointed once again in the Bundesliga, losing away 2-nil to Leipzig and distancing themselves even more from the European race. Niko Kovač chose not to make any changes to the side that faced Lille midweek, as most players were there by merit.
BVB started the game in reasonable form, trading scoring opportunities with Leipzig in a back-and-forth match, but near the quarter-hour mark, Leipzig began dominating the attack. Leipzig opened the scoring through Xavi Simmons, who finished a rebound from a chance created by David Raum. Waldemar Anton, who played the right-back position, drifted into the middle of the pitch too often, and the Black and Yellows were punished for the space allotted to Raum on the wing this time.
The second half opened with too little focus, as an unmarked Lois Openeda scored from a Simmons corner kick minutes after kickoff. Dortmund became much more aggressive after the second concession, creating more than a few clear chances. But it was too little, too late, as Leipzig’s Peter Gulacsi made nine saves to deny the Black and Yellows a score in this match. Alas, BVB missed their fair share of chances in this period, too, and it’s another domestic loss for Niko Kovač and company. Here are my biggest takeaways:
We can’t rely on individual talent
Individual talent is something Borussia Dortmund has in droves. Maxi Beier had five shots in this match, and Karim Adeyemi created four chances. Nico Schlotterbeck had twelve accurate long balls, and even Emre Can managed eleven passes into the final third. Yet something doesn’t seem to be clicking in Dortmund since we couldn’t find the net once.
It’s one thing to have quality, and it’s another to use that quality in an efficient way. Waldemar Anton’s positioning as a right-back was atrocious, while Ryerson played the left side, leaving Yan Couto and Ramy Bensebaini sat on the bench. Serhou Guirassy can look like a world-class player in front of goal, but, at times, he slows down the pace of the build-up, killing any counter-attacking opportunities that may have started.
For instance, introducing a player like Jamie Gittens in the second half seems like a good idea. However, the idea that the young Englishman will come off the bench and perform after his worst personal run of form this season is a bit naïve. He’s not rescuing games anymore like he was in the early stages of this season, and still, we saw him find dangerous space in Leipzig’s box. So much of this comes down to a lack of urgency.
Dortmund looked threatening in this match, but only truly after going down 0-2. The team needs to perform like that from the first whistle. Where is the urgency? Why isn’t this team fighting harder for Europe? And how will this team find a way to merge their individual quality with a coherent match plan? Only against Union Berlin, I guess.
European qualification seems unlikely
We keep talking about how Dortmund can still qualify for Europe, and it is possible, but it’s time we accept that BVB’s likelihood of qualifying for Europe is slim. SC Freiburg sits in sixth place, seven points ahead of BVB. Reaching sixth would only qualify Dortmund for the Europa Conference League with all the respect this competition deserves.
Losing to Augsburg last week has allowed them to overtake Dortmund in the standings, and losing to Leipzig prevented the Black-and-Yellows from catching up to their energy drink rivals. With upcoming games against top-tier teams like Mainz, Freiburg, Bayern Munich, and Leverkusen among the eight remaining matches, it’s hard to imagine Dortmund picking up enough points to qualify for any of the European competitions.
Dortmund have succumbed to their eleventh league loss of the season, with just ten wins and five draws. It’s accurate to say that Borussia Dortmund is a mid-table club at the current stage, and that’s incredibly disappointing.
Has Niko Kovač improved Borussia Dortmund?
Niko Kovač was tasked with coming to Dortmund, steadying the ship, and qualifying for Europe, thereby salvaging the season. It’s true Dortmund just fought back against a resilient Lille side to qualify for the UEFA Champions League quarterfinals. However, Lille was a team we should expect to defeat more comfortably, and 3-2 on aggregate over two games was hardly dominant, but I digress.
Nuri Sahin opened the year with four consecutive losses, and Dortmund were in freefall, but Niko Kovač’s tenure hasn’t been the most exciting. Dortmund are languishing in eleventh place in the Bundesliga, no closer to European qualification than when Kovač joined. He’s earned six points from six Bundesliga games, and that’s not enough to compete in Europe. That’s just not good enough from Dortmund, period.
Since the start of 2025, Dortmund has been in the bottom half of the table. Their only three league wins have been against teams below them in the table. Unfortunately, the eleventh place is precisely where we deserve to be. Kovač has four wins, four losses, and two draws in all competitions with BVB, and at 40%, he has a lower win percentage than Nuri Sahin’s spell at Dortmund.
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