Borussia Dortmund’s 4-2 win over Bayer Leverkusen must be appreciated at a much deeper level than the scoreline suggests.
It’s a well-worn cliche, but this was truly a game of two halves. By full-time, it’s safe to say we didn’t quite learn much of anything about either Dortmund or Leverkusen as we might have wanted.
In the first 45 minutes, Dortmund struggled to come up with answers as Leverkusen cut them apart. First right-back Mitchell Weiser shot a bouncing effort to the far post past Roman Bürki to take the lead, then centre-back Jonathan Tah scored off a corner kick six minutes before half-time.
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Though only two points from the top of the table ahead of this match, Dortmund have looked a touch sloppy in possession. Leverkusen, resurgent after a bumbling start to their campaign, looked like they were set to deliver Dortmund’s first loss of the season.
The opening moments of the second half seemed to confirm that suspicion. Though Dortmund were finding avenues through the midfield and into enemy territory, Leverkusen came close to extending their lead in the 53rd minute when Kevin Volland hit a shot off of the post.
That chance would be among Leverkusen’s last of the match however. Soon after Volland’s miss, Dortmund coach Lucien Favre made his second substitution of the game, bringing off Maximilian Philipp in favor of erstwhile Barcelona forward Paco Alcácer. The complexion of the game changed completely thereafter.
In truth, the first factor in Dortmund’s turnaround came at half-time, when Favre used his first substitution to bring on Mahmoud Dahoud. The 22-year-old provided a firmer grip on midfield than Thomas Delaney, the man he replaced, and Leverkusen’s routes through the center of the pitch became fewer and fewer.
Alcácer introduction provided the bite Dortmund really needed however. Two minutes after his introduction, the Spaniard charged Leverkusen’s goal along with Jacob Bruun Larson to latch on to a narrowly missed shot from Marco Reus, with the young Dane claiming the goal in the end.
Their lead halved, Leverkusen might still have believed they could see the match through to three points. And then Jadon Sancho came on.
The 18-year-old Manchester City youth product just scored his first goal of the season off the bench on Wednesday in Dortmund’s 7-0 rout of Nürnberg, and now was coming on again to deliver some change of pace in place of Christian Pulisic.
Again, it didn’t take long for his presence to be felt. A minute after coming on, Sancho reclaimed possession near the half-way line, charging up the touchline exchanging 1-2s with Reus until the latter scored the equalizer.
The match was now firmly in Dortmund’s control, thanks almost entirely to Favre’s keen use of his substitutes. The go-ahead goal was simply a matter of time, and it came in the 85th minute courtesy of Alcácer. Tah would come close to leveling accounts again at the beginning of stoppage time, but another Alcácer goal, thanks to another Sancho assist, sealed the match entirely just before the final whistle.
Dortmund’s bench, and Favre’s clever use of it, proved decisive in this encounter, but it wasn’t the whole story. That Leverkusen were able to so thoroughly befuddle Dortmund in the first half should worry Favre and company.