Borussia Dortmund's awful away form continued in a 2-1 loss to Augsburg in the Bundesliga on Saturday that increases the pressure on coach Nuri Sahin.
Dortmund's fourth loss in a row in away games in all competitions — including 5-2 at Real Madrid on Tuesday — left the team seven points off new Bundesliga leader Leipzig.
The team's poor form has key players and sporting director Sebastian Kehl at a loss. “I'm annoyed by the many goals we're conceding,” Kehl said. "We've been addressing this intensively but now we're standing here having to explain things that I can't explain.”
Alexis Claude-Maurice made his first start since joining Augsburg in August and rewarded his new team with two goals from distance to turn the game around. Dortmund led with an early Donyell Malen goal.
The game ended with 18-year-old Dortmund defender Almugera Kabar sent off for two yellow cards on his Bundesliga debut. American forward Cole Campbell also debuted.
Sahin, who took over after Edin Terzic left following Dortmund's Champions League final loss last season, already faced scrutiny of his tactics last week after Dortmund gave up a two-goal lead in the loss at Madrid.
Sahin could be without defenders Waldemar Anton and Julian Ryerson and midfielder Marcel Sabitzer for another away game on Tuesday at Wolfsburg in the German Cup. All went off with injuries on Saturday.
Leipzig on top
Leipzig looks like two different teams, depending on which competition its playing in.
In the Champions League, it has lost all three of its games. In the Bundesliga, Marco Rose's team leads the standings — at least until Bayern Munich plays Sunday — and is unbeaten in its eight games.
Leipzig briefly looked like bringing its Champions League form to the Bundesliga before a second-half comeback to beat Freiburg 3-1.
Poor marking allowed Ritsu Doan to head Freiburg in front in the 15th — the first goal Leipzig conceded in the Bundesliga since Aug. 31. Goals from defenders Willi Orban and Lutsharel Geertruida got Leipzig back into the game before Loïs Openda scored from a tight angle to secure the win.
With attacking midfielder Xavi Simons set to be out for weeks with an ankle ligament injury sustained in Leipzig’s 1-0 loss to Liverpool on Wednesday, teammates Castello Lukeba and Amadou Haidara raised his shirt in tribute.
Leverkusen drops points
Late goals were key to Bayer Leverkusen's title win last season. It went the other way on Saturday as Romano Schmid's 90th-minute goal salvaged a 2-2 draw for Werder Bremen and dropped Leverkusen five points off the lead.
Victor Boniface scored Leverkusen's opening goal, playing with his hand bandaged after a car crash which caused him to miss Wednesday's 1-1 Champions League draw at Brest. Three of Leverkusen's last four games in all competitions have been draws.
El Bilal Touré scored a vital goal in Stuttgart's 1-0 win over Juventus on Tuesday in the Champions League, and the Mali forward did it again on Saturday with a goal and assist to beat Holstein Kiel 2-1.
Touré surged for most of the length of the field on a counterattack to set up Deniz Undav for Stuttgart's first goal and scored the second with an audacious long-range shot.
That gave Stuttgart a much-needed first Bundesliga win in over a month, but only after surviving the last half-hour with 10 men after Jeff Chabot earned two yellow cards in the space of three minutes.
Also, Wolfsburg drew at St. Pauli 0-0.
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
James Ellingworth, The Associated Press
