Gonzalo Castro and Christian Pulisic scored in the 85th and 86th minutes respectively as Borussia Dortmund fought back from two goals down to rescue a 2-2 draw against VfL Bochum in front of 24,000 fans at the Ruhrstadion.

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While VfL Bochum kick off their 2. Bundesliga campaign with a home game against St. Pauli next Friday, Borussia Dortmund boss Peter Bosz still has four weeks to fine-tune his squad before their first competitive fixture.

Dan-Axel Zagadou lined up in a centre-back position for the first time since his arrival at the club, while Mario Götze made his first start in over six months and Roman Bürki started between the sticks after overcoming a foot problem.

Borussia took to the field in a 4-1-4-1 formation with the highly attentive Rode sitting in front of the back four and Götze – occupying a broad role that involved picking up the ball from deep and distributing it to his team-mates – alongside Schürrle in central midfield. The Black & Yellows resorted to a 2-3-2-3 when Bochum had the ball and played an intense counter-pressing game, though they struggled to convert their dominance into clear-cut chances. Having been played in by Götze, Pulisic spurned the best goalscoring opportunity of the opening half when, at close range, he failed to beat 'keeper Riemann from a narrow angle in the eighth minute, before Zagadou headed a Mor free-kick centimetres wide with six minutes of the first period remaining.

The deadlock was eventually broken by VfL – who transitioned quickly through the midfield and consistently found gaps in the Dortmund rearguard – when Celozzi struck the ball past the powerless Bürki from the edge of the box after Diamantakos had cut it back from the byline. However, the Swiss shot-stopper made an excellent save to deny Mlapa a minute later, having previously twice thwarted Diamantakos in the 15th and 17th minutes.

Spirited fightback as BVB come back from two down

Bochum doubled their advantage ten minutes into the second half when Losilla gathered a loose ball outside the box, controlled it twice with his head and hammered a volley in off the underside of the bar from around 15 metres out. Reimann, who had made strong saves to deny Diamantakos (54) and Stöger (55) after replacing Bürki at the break, had no chance.

Schürrle missed from 20 metres in the 62nd minute, before Castro came close with a free-kick from a similar distance two minutes later. At the other end, Stiepermann spurned a golden chance to put the game beyond their visitors following a three-on-two attack.

Dortmund's fightback started when Castro pulled one back with a well-placed shot from 18 metres out in the 85th minute, before Pulisic guided a Schürrle cross over the line with his chest barely 60 seconds later to level the scores. The visitors could have even completed the comeback late on if Aubameyang's curled effort hadn't sailed millimetres wide of the post in the dying seconds.

BVB: Bürki (Reimann, 46) – Passlack (Piszczek, 75), Toprak (Sokratis, 75), Zagadou (Subotic, 75), Durm (Bartra, 60) – Rode (Sahin, 75) – Mor (Dembélé, 75), Götze (Castro, 46), Schürrle, Pulisic – Isak (Aubameyang, 75)
Goals: 1-0 Celozzi (39), 2-0 Losilla (55), 2-1 Castro (85), 2-2 Pulisic (86)
Attendance: 24,000
Boris Rupert

BVB total!-Video: Match Highlights of the friendly against Bochum