Borussia Dortmund 4-0 Bayer Leverkusen: 4 Talking Points
Borussia Dortmund bounced back from a defeat in Berlin spectacularly with a brilliant 4-0 home win against a tough opponent in Bayer Leverkusen. Favre's side made that loss look like just a blip to once again put the ball in Bayern's court as they face RB Leipzig in a tough away fixture later in the day.
Bayer Leverkusen were on top for the first 20 minutes of the game, but made little of their advantage. Their midfield three seemed to be playing around the Dortmund double pivot, but Dortmund began to cope as Brandt and Reus started dropping deeper to support Witsel and Delaney.
While Leverkusen were on top, they failed to take advantage, but within a few minutes of Dortmund taking control, they were 1-0 up when Alcacer converted from a curling cross whipped in by Hakimi.
It only took them 5 minutes in the second half to double their lead through Marco Reus and it was business as usual from then on. Leverkusen were unable to penetrate the Dortmund block for the most part following the second goal. Dortmund maintained good defensive integrity and scored twice on the counter in the last 10 minutes to earn their first clean sheet in the league this season, and their third win.
Marco Reus the perfect foil for Paco Alcacer
Paco Alcacer scores plenty of goals, and it was no surprise that he scored the first of this game. However, for the rest of the game, he failed to make much of an impact. His movement seems limited outside of the box and when he does get on the ball, if he's not tucking it into the back of the net or playing it off to a team-mate, he tends to be quite poor.
At the moment, though, it seems to be working for Borussia Dortmund, because what they seem to lack in Paco, they have it in captain Marco Reus. He seems to be making all the right runs, getting into the right places, carrying the ball forward and turning opponents.
It allows Alcacer to do what he does best in terms of getting into the box and finishing. It also allows Favre the option of leaving Alcacer on the bench in some games and bringing him off the bench which he used to great impact last season.