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Leverkusen head coach Alonso expressed his delight with his side’s performance to come to the vociferous Signal Iduna Park and pick up all three points on offer on the road.
Xabi Alonso. (X)
Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen registered a 3-2 triumph over German heavyweights Borussia Dortmund on Saturday in an action-packed game at the Signal Iduna Park.
Leverkusen head coach Xabi Alonso expressed his delight with his side’s performance to come to the vociferous Iduna Park and pick up all three points on offer on the road.
“We are very satisfied with the performance and with the win,” Alonso said.
“To come here and win with such a serious performance means that our development is important. A good start to the year,” he added.
Nathan Tella opened the scoring on the day as he put Alonso’s men ahead after just 25 seconds of the tee-off. They doubled their lead through Patrick Schick in the 8th minute. Jamie Gittens cut the deficit in half for Dortmund four minutes later, but Schick restored the two-goal lead in the 19th minute. Serhou Guirassy reduced the arrears in the 79th minute with a spot kick, but Alonso’s men held out for the win against Nuri Sahin’s side.
“We did the work in the beginning of the game and then we controlled it,” added Alonso.
Alonso opined how crucial it was for his team to work hard off the ball in order to post positive results as they look to cut down on the gap at the top. He emphasised how important such performances of digging out results in a title race.
“We did it well with the ball but we also did it really well without the ball. We did not concede much,” Alonso said.
“It is a development of our game that we can compete in this way, to play here with this discipline against a top, top team in Europe,” he added.
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Leverkusen took their tally to 35 points from 16 games, one behind table-toppers Bayern Munich who have played one game lesser than the holders.