BERLIN (Reuters) – Champions Bayer Leverkusen must win at bottom side VfL Bochum on Saturday or risk losing touch with the Bundesliga pacesetters as their undefeated title season quickly becomes a distant memory.
Xabi Alonso’s team have won just one of their last five league matches to drop to fourth place on 16 points and see the gap to leaders Bayern Munich increase to seven.
After last week’s goalless draw at home to mid-table VfB Stuttgart, Leverkusen suffered a 4-0 defeat at Alonso’s old club Liverpool in the Champions League on Tuesday.
“We take a lot of things with us from this,” said Leverkusen midfielder Granit Xhaka after the loss at Anfield. “Good and bad things, and if we keep doing our thing we’ll win matches again.”
They will have to start quickly with Leverkusen having drawn four of their last five league games and kept only one clean sheet in the Bundesliga so far this season.
They could not have hoped for an easier opponent at this stage with Bochum having earned one point after nine league games and having lost their last five matches in a row.
Bochum’s defence is in trouble, having let in more than three goals on average per match for a total of 29, the fourth worst record at this stage of a season in Bundesliga history.
In their last two league matches Bochum conceded 12 goals.
Veteran coach Dieter Hecking took over on Monday after the sacking of Peter Zeidler late last month, in a bid to steady the ship following last week’s 7-2 demolition by Eintracht Frankfurt
“At halftime of the Frankfurt game I had to take a walk and ask myself ‘do you really want to take this on,” Hecking said.
“The league table doesn’t lie. But it’s up to me to change that. I don’t know if I can solve this and it’s not something I’ll promise but I’ll work with all my strengths to do it,” he said.
“Why should we not get a point from Leverkusen. I am not one to lift a white flag quickly. I love challenges.”
Bayern, fresh from their 1-0 Champions League home win over Benfica, lead the standings on 23 points and travel to Hamburg to face lowly St Pauli on Saturday before RB Leipzig, second on 20, host mid-table Borussia Moenchengladbach.
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by Ken Ferris)
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