What the papers say: 'No points but near to perfection'

The Kölner Stadt Anzeiger reaches the following conclusion: "Bayer 04 had BVB up against the Yellow Wall at times – and lost." The report continues: "It wasn't really clear whether disappointment or pride had the upper hand with Bayer 04 Leverkusen. They completely dominated the league leaders in front of the most impressive crowd in the Bundesliga. They recovered from setbacks - but lost 3-2 against Borussia Dortmund in the end.“ ...The kick-off was the starting shot for an impressive 30-minute all-out attack by the nominally more defensive  Leverkusen side. Julian Brandt, Kai Havertz and Charles Aránguiz ran rings round Dortmund. Such dominance by visitors to the Signal Iduna Park has not been seen for a long time. 75 per cent possession, 200 passes by Leverkusen compared with 80 from Dortmund. The only thing missing for the Werkself was a goal."

The Kicker chose this headline: "No points for Bayer but near to perfection." The report continues: "Bayer pinned back BVB in the first 30 minutes with a mixture of confidence, comfort on the ball and accurate passing and they put them under incredible pressure. Bayer were completely on top at this stage but could not get the ball in the BVB net. ...In the end it was absolutely avoidable defeat."

The Bild Zeitung declares: "Bosz run ends at Dortmund" and they quote the BVB coach Lucien Favre: "We struggled against  Bayer." And Lukas Hradecky  also shared his assessment: "We were on top of Dortmund up to the first goal. The way we played was good. Therefore, I'm convinced we can finish in the top six."

The Kölnische Rundschau sums up the 90 minutes at Dortmund with the headline: "Pedigree, class and five goals."

And the Dortmund media knew how to correctly rank the flattering victory for BVB. The Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung reports: "League leaders struggle to 3-2 win against Leverkusen." And the Ruhr Nachrichten came to the conclusion from a Borussia perspective: "Luck in games has returned."