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Leverkusen (dpa) - Bayer Leverkusen has missed the great opportunity to become Bayern hunter number one.
After five wins in a row, the Werkself gave up points again in an uneventful 0-0 draw against Hertha BSC on matchday 9 and remained third in the Bundesliga.
After Borussia Dortmund's surprising 1: 2 home defeat against 1. FC Köln on Saturday, Leverkusen could have taken second place with a victory, one point behind FC Bayern Munich.
However, Bayer coach Peter Bosz had to replace a total of nine well-known professionals on Sunday.
Three of them canceled at short notice on match day.
One week before the derby, Hertha occupied a disappointing 13th place with their current rival 1. FC Union with eight points, but at least proved their strength away from home.
The "old lady" got seven of her eight points abroad.
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Bosz had received several bad news before the game.
Lucas Alario (knee problems), Karim Bellarabi (thigh problems) and Nadiem Amiri (sick) were canceled at short notice.
It was already clear beforehand that Sven Bender (ankle problems), Edmond Tapsoba (training deficit after a positive corona test) and the long-term injuries Santiago Arias, Ezequiel Palacios, Paulinho and Charles Aranguiz would be absent.
Bayer got a well-known starting XI, but there were only four field players on the bench and three squad spots remained vacant.
Hertha coach Bruno Labbadia, who made the leap to Bundesliga coach in Leverkusen in 2008, but was only allowed to stay for one year, trusted the same team as in the previous week in the old place of work.
Although they lost 5-2 to Borussia Dortmund, they were apparently trying to make amends.
The Berliners made a slightly better impression in the first 20 minutes of the moderate and not very entertaining game at temperatures just above freezing point.
The guests were well organized, but also harmless in the offensive game.
Bayer had the first noteworthy chance to score when Kerem Demirbay simply hit it from almost 30 meters after losing the ball from Niklas Stark and forced Hertha goalkeeper Alexander Schwolow to make a good save (33rd).
After the change, the hosts took even more command.
Hertha was now too low and almost only defended.
Still very solid.
It took free kicks for the hosts to be at least halfway dangerous again by Demirbay (55th / 67th).
Hertha was unable to concentrate on the counter-opportunities that arose and thus remained almost the entire second half without any real offensive action.
Significant: In the 70th minute, Labbadia replaced both strikers.
In stoppage time, Leverkusen's Lars Bender narrowly missed the Berlin goal with a header after a free kick.
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© dpa-infocom, dpa: 201129-99-508278 / 2
Information about the game at bundesliga.de