Behind the first two places in the German championship promised to Bayer Leverkusen (61 points, one game in hand) and Bayern Munich (54 pts), the race rages between Stuttgart (47 pts, one game in hand), Dortmund ( 44 pts) and Leipzig (43) for only two places for the next C1.
With ten days remaining, Borussia Dortmund retained their fourth place, on the pitch at Union Berlin, not without difficulty.
After being dominated for half an hour, Edin Terzic’s players opened the scoring with a superb strike from Karim Adeyemi.
The German international took advantage of a small space left by the Berlin defense to approach the area and unleash a clear left-footed shot which lodged under Frederik Rönnow’s crossbar.
“We slept a little in the first minutes. Afterwards we were well in the match and we played a solid match,” commented Adeyemi on the microphone of the broadcaster Sky.
Last week, BVB led at the break against Hoffenheim (2-1) but failed to maintain their advantage, ultimately losing 3 to 2. On Saturday, despite pressure from the Union, Dortmund held on, notably thanks to their goalkeeper Alexander Meyer, author of a spectacular save in front of Kevin Volland.
“We knew what awaited us and that it was going to be complicated. We managed to hold out in such a stadium, with such an atmosphere. Everyone accepted the fight,” Meyer analyzed.
In the last minute of play, Ian Maatsen relieved his entire team by scoring the second goal for BVB, which also allowed Terzic to breathe while the defeat against Hoffenheim had reignited criticism.
For Leipzig, also beaten last week in Munich by Bayern, the trip to Bochum started in the worst possible way with a huge hand error from goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi, on a free kick from Maximilian Wittek who did not ask for one. so much to open the score.
Dominant, Marco Rose’s players did not panic and logically equalized through the Spaniard Dani Olmo (30th) and took control through Loïs Openda (68th).
The Belgian international center forward scored his 17th goal of the season, third top scorer in the Bundesliga behind the 27 goals of Harry Kane (Bayern) and the 18 of Serhou Guirassy (Stuttgart).
Before going to Madrid to face Real in the round of 16 second leg of the Champions League with a goal to come back, Leipzig enjoyed a quiet end to the match thanks to an own goal from Ivan Ordets (71st) and an achievement by Yussuf Poulsen (72nd).