Dortmund and Leipzig locked in battle for top four finish

BERLIN : Bayer Leverkusen's unbeaten run towards a first Bundesliga title has captured the headlines but a battle is raging a bit further behind between Borussia Dortmund and RB Leipzig for a top four finish and a spot in the lucrative Champions League next season.

Leaders Leverkusen, on 67 points, are 10 clear of second-placed Bayern Munich and look set to break the Bavarians' 11-year stranglehold on the league crown.

But in the fight for fourth place with nine matches left, Dortmund, buoyed by Champions League quarter-final qualification on Wednesday with a win over PSV Eindhoven, host Eintracht Frankfurt on Sunday after Leipzig travel to Cologne on Friday.

The Ruhr valley club, who have 47 points in fourth place, will want to protect their one-point lead over Leipzig, in fifth, ahead of their next league game at Bayern on March 30 after the international break.

Following a run of four league games with one win, Dortmund look to have recovered in time, winning their last two Bundesliga matches, and making it three wins in a row across all competitions.

"It has not been an easy time for us in the past few weeks," Dortmund coach Edin Terzic said after Wednesday's 2-0 win over PSV took them through 3-1 on aggregate.

"We had to soak up a lot of criticism. But I think we have shown what we are capable of."

"We now have nine (league) games left to put ourselves in the position to play again in the Champions League next season," Terzic added.

Leipzig failed to get past Real Madrid in the Champions League last 16 but have won three of their last four league games to put themselves back in top four contention.

"I don't spend any time thinking about the schedule," Leipzig coach Marco Rose said on Thursday when asked about their match at