Borussia Dortmund secured a 2:1 victory over Bayer Leverkusen in a Bundesliga top match, climbing to third in the table. Goals came from Aarón Anselmino and Karim Adeyemi for Dortmund, with Christian Kofane scoring late for Leverkusen. The game started with a 12-minute fan protest against planned security measures.
The 12th-round Bundesliga top clash between Bayer Leverkusen and Borussia Dortmund ended in a narrow 2:1 win for the visitors. Both teams entered with momentum from midweek Champions League games: Dortmund beat Villarreal 4:0, while Leverkusen defeated Manchester City's reserve side 2:0.
The match did not start with flair but with protest. Fans in all stadiums observed 12 minutes of silence against upcoming measures like personalized tickets or a central authority for stadium bans, to be decided at the interior ministers' conference in Bremen (December 3-5). During this, Ernest Poku missed a chance for Leverkusen (10th minute).
The game was fiercely contested, with yellow cards for Dortmund's Nico Schlotterbeck (11th) and Leverkusen's Malik Tillman (30th) after a heated duel. Dortmund took the lead through Aarón Anselmino's header from Daniel Svensson's free-kick (41st minute)—his first Bundesliga goal. After halftime, Leverkusen's Tillman (55th) and Patrik Schick (56th) were denied by goalkeeper Gregor Kobel.
Karim Adeyemi made it 2:0 with a header from Fabio Silva's cross (65th minute). Leverkusen pushed forward, with Jonas Hofmann hitting the crossbar (71st), but Christian Kofane only pulled one back (83rd minute). "We played a really good away game, but we need to decide it earlier," said BVB sporting director Sebastian Kehl on Sky. The win gives Dortmund 25 points, ahead of Leverkusen on 23. A rematch awaits on Tuesday in the DFB-Pokal in Dortmund.