Leverkusen cedes ground in Bundesliga title race, Dortmund loses again in Kovač’s debut

BERLIN (AP) — Bayer Leverkusen has been dealt a major blow to its Bundesliga title defense, and Borussia Dortmund’s malaise has continued through Niko Kovač’s debut as coach.

Leverkusen was held to a goalless draw at Wolfsburg on Saturday, allowing league leader Bayern Munich to go eight points clear before the top two clash in Leverkusen next weekend. No team has ever made up such a gap at this stage of the Bundesliga season to become champion. Bayern defeated Werder Bremen 3-0 on Friday.

“The gap has become far too big, unfortunately,” Leverkusen goalkeeper Lukáš Hrádecký said. “That’s the difference from last season – the games that we’re drawing now, we won last year.”

Leverkusen coach Xabi Alonso made eight changes to the team that edged Cologne to reach the German Cup semifinals, with star player Florian Wirtz dropping to the substitutes’ bench and new signing Mario Hermoso making his first start. Only Nordi Mukiele, Jonathan Tah and Granit Xhaka had started against Cologne on Wednesday.

Dortmund disappoints again

Dortmund lost 2-1 at home to Stuttgart in Kovač’s first game in charge, the team’s eighth league defeat of the season.

Kovač was given an inkling of what was to come when his bag became stuck as he tried leaving the team bus before the match.

Two players who joined Dortmund from Stuttgart in the summer played a role in their ex-team’s goals.

Defender Waldemar Anton turned Chris Führich’s cross into his own net early in the second half, and former Stuttgart forward Serhou Guirassy was at fault for the second goal when he lost the ball in defense. Julian Chabot put the visitors 2-0 up in the 61st.

Dortmund’s ill luck continued when Alexander Nübel did enough to push Jamie Gittens’ deflected shot onto the crossbar.

Julian Brandt pulled one back in the 81st but encapsulated Dortmund’s afternoon with the last kick of the game when he sent a promising free kick well over. Dortmund’s Julian Ryerson was already sent off with his second yellow card for his reaction to a foul.

“Football is emotions, that’s why we go to the stadium,” Kovač said of Ryerson’s sending off. “If it wasn’t like that, we’d go to the theater. There would probably be fewer emotions there.”

It was the seventh defeat Kovač experienced as a coach in Dortmund, just this time it was in charge of the home team.

“The result is the only thing that wasn’t good. The rest was totally fine,” Kovač said.

Ljubičić’s dream debut

Croatian forward Marin Ljubičić enjoyed his Union Berlin debut with a goal and an assist after going on as a substitute in a 4-0 win at Hoffenheim.

It was Union’s biggest win of the season and bucked its trend of never scoring more than two goals. Union had failed to score at all in four of its last five matches.

Benedict Hollerbach got the scoring underway, Ljubičić delivered the second goal two minutes after going on as a substitute, Andrej Ilić scored his first Bundesliga goal for the third, and Ljubičić set up Hollerbach to complete the rout.

Frankfurt’s third straight draw

Third-placed Eintracht Frankfurt was held 1-1 at Borussia Mönchengladbach, the visiting team’s third consecutive draw.

Michy Batshuayi started for his Frankfurt debut, and Elye Wahi went on in the second half to make his. Frankfurt signed both players to make up for Omar Marmoush’s departure for Manchester City.

But it was Marmoush’s former partner Hugo Ekitiké who delivered a prompt response to Tim Kleindienst’s 26th-minute opener for Gladbach.

Freiburg enjoyed a 1-0 win over Heidenheim and Mainz drew with Augsburg 0-0.

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