Three Goals In Five Minutes Take Borussia Dortmund To 3-1 Victory Over Bayer Leverkusen

An even first half that ended 0-0 led to an incredibly uneven second half, dominated by Borussia Dortmund in their match away to Bayer Leverkusen at the BayArena. Kevin Grosskreutz was the man who starred in BVB’s early second half romp, scoring two goals and notching an assist in a six minute period.

The first goal came from a defensive error, when Bayer defender Daniel Schwaab completely misplayed the ball in his own penalty area off of a throw-in. The ball then fell to the left winger Grosskreutz who scored an easy tap in goal to put the visitors up 1-0 in the 49th minute. He would extend his side’s lead just three minutes later, scoring on a much classier finish, created by a Robert Lewandowski header after a poor giveaway by Rene Adler. It would take another three minutes for Grosskreutz to create the third goal, winning a 50-50 challenge that resulted in the ball falling to the feet of Mario Goetze in space. The young attacking midfielder, starting in place of Shinji Kagawa, who is away at the 2011 Asian Cup, picked up the ball and finished between the legs of Adler from ten yards out. Between the 49th and 55th minutes, Dortmund scored three goals to go up 3-0, all created or scored by Grosskreutz.

Neither Bayer Leverkusen’s lineup, nor Borussia Dortmund’s has any crazy surprises, but fans of these teams and football in general will be happy to see Michael Ballack return to the bench for Bayer and Lucas Barrios return to the bench for BVB. Neither is fit enough to play 90 minutes yet, but both should return to their teams’ starting lineups shortly. Unfortunately, this season’s breakout star in the Bundesliga, Shinji Kagawa, is injured and unable to play today. Despite the absence of those three players from the starting lineups, both teams field extremely strong sides.

Bayer Leverkusen lineup (4-4-2): Adler ; Reinartz, Freidrich, Schwaab, Castro ; Augusto, Rolfes, Bender, Sam ; Kiessling, Helmes