Borussia Dortmund defeated Bayer Leverkusen on their turf to continue their brilliant start to 2023 in Bundesliga.
Karim Adeyemi and Edmond Tapsoba’s own goal gave the visitors their third win on the trot which takes them within three points of the league leaders Bayern Munich whose struggles since the restart continued over the weekend.
It was Bayer Leverkusen, on a five-game win streak, that took the early initiative with Gregor Kobel needing to parry Moussa Diaby’s goal-bound shot early to keep Dortmund in the contest.
But the visitors became more adventurous as time wore on and took the lead in the 34th minute through Adeyemi who finished off a great team passing move for his first Bundesliga goal of the season.
Kobel had to bail out his side once again just three minutes following the halftime break, denying Diaby and Amine Adli in quick succession.
His stunning saves paid off as Dortmund doubled their lead in the 53rd when defender Edmond Tapsoba turned a Marius Wolf cutback into his own goal past Lukáš Hrádecký.
The Burkina Faso defender almost scored another own goal in the 72nd when he attempted to clear yet another cutback from Julian Brandt but Jeremie Frimpong spared his blushes by clearing the ball on the line.
There was little action after that with Dortmund now moving to 4th place with the win but just three points from the top.
Leverkusen remains 9th but continues to show improvement under Xabi Alonso.
