Narrow defeat for U19s in top match

A match decided by narrow margins was what U19 coach Markus von Ahlen expected ahead of the top match away to second-in-the-table Borussia Dortmund in the U19 Bundesliga West. And that's what happened.

In an intense and close game, the Werkself youngsters lost 2-1 away to BVB on matchday 23 thereby missing the chance to move up to second place and progress towards qualifying for the German Championship finals.

Dortmund strike

After the Leverkusen visitors looked the livelier of the two sides up front it was Borussia who were more effective as they exploited a mistake in the Bayer 04 defence following a free kick to open the scoring on 24 minutes.

"We were to reckless in defence in that situation and that gave the opponents an advantage," said coach Iraklis Metaxas. At the start of the second half, the coaches switched to a back three to allow more pressure up front.

Yalcin rewards effort

BVB remained energetic but Güven Yalcin was able to reward Leverkusen efforts when he equalised at 1-1 on 66 minutes with his twelfth goal of the season. Everything was open again in the race for one of the two qualifying places for the final rounds of the German U19 championship in the West – but not for long.

Just four minutes after equalising, the Leverkusen defence misjudged a long ball from Dortmund who exploited situation to go 2-1 up on 70 minutes. "The team tried everything right to the end and gave their all," said von Ahlen.

Clear chances to level

Yalcin had a huge chance to level just before the final whistle. However, after beating a number of opponents in the box he was kept out by the Borussia keeper.

The 2-1 win for Dortmund season take top spot from Schalke 04 who lost their home game against FC Köln 3-2. With three games to go Bayer 04 are three points behind Schalke and still in touch with a qualification spot – and the Werkself face the Royal Blues on the penultimate matchday.

Hürth in the cup

Before that there is the quarter-final of the Middle Rhine Cup on Wednesday against district league side FC Hürth (19.00 CET). "The first thing to focus on after such an intensive game is recovery but then we will approach the cup game in exactly the same way as in a Bundesliga top match," promised coach Metaxas."

Match stats:

Borussia Dortmund U19: Bansen - Schwermann, Binias, Kyeremateng (Bulut 88’), Amenyido, Laukart (Yilma 91’), Sechelmann, Kilian, Kopacz (Baxmann 76’), Schulte, Wanner (Lippert 80’).

Bayer 04 U19: Prinz - Nesseler, Rhein, Harenbrock (Popopvic 81’), Handwerker, Shala (Grym 46’), Yalcin, Bednarczyk, Abu Hanna (Osawe 52’), Akkaynak, Schreck.

Goals: 1-0 Binias (24’), 1-1 Yalcin (66’), 2-1 Kyeremateng (70’).

Booked: Binias - Shala.

Referee: Herbert (Nüsttal).

Attendance: 300.