Berlin, Dec 4: Ibrahim Maza’s first-half strike was enough for Bayer Leverkusen to knock Borussia Dortmund out of the German Cup with a 1-0 win in their third-round encounter on Tuesday.Maza scored in the 34th minute after a team move from the back. Álex Grimaldo played the 20-year-old Algeria forward through, and though Waldemar Anton blocked Maza’s first effort, he curled the ball in with his second after beating Anton and another Dortmund defender to the ball.
Leverkusen’s Martin Terrier had a would-be goal ruled out for offside after a VAR check in the second half.Karim Adeyemi had two good chances for dominant Dortmund before the break, and the fans thought he’d scored in stoppage time, but it was only side netting with his header from a difficult angle.
“We had a score to settle,” said Maza, referring to Dortmund’s win in Leverkusen in the Bundesliga on Saturday.
Maza’s former team Hertha Berlin enjoyed a 6-1 rout of second-division rival Kaiserslautern, the beaten finalist in 2024, to stretch its winning run to seven games across all competitions. The goal it conceded was the first since its last defeat, a 3-2 loss at Bochum on Oct. 18.