Borussia Dortmund have dropped points at home for the first time this season. On Saturday evening, the Black & Yellows missed the opportunity to draw level on points with the quartet of Leverkusen, Gladbach, Schalke and Leipzig and perhaps even exceed them on goal difference to jump into second place in the table. Instead, last season's runners-up find themselves down in seventh place for the time being. ''Now we have to win our next few matches at any cost,'' says Marco Reus.

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There was a real sense of disappointment in the air as the referee blew his final whistle. Understandably so, given the manner in which BVB had thrown away two points at home to Werder Bremen. The Black & Yellows showed character to come back from a goal down, but not enough to secure an all-important three points. ''We have to be more clinical, both in defence and in attack. We've been playing some attractive football, but we're just lacking that killer instinct,'' said Roman Bürki. His opposite number in the Bremen goal, Jiri Pavlenka, was able to deny the Black & Yellows with exceptional saves on four separate occasions. 

Bremen head coach Florian Kohfeldt's post-match statements gave an interesting insight into how Dortmund should look to play against opponents who look to keep it tight ''...they're able to score a goal out of nowhere. They pull you out wide and then look to strike. That's so hard to defend against. Dortmund are an absolute top side in that regard.'' The first-half headed goals from Mario Götze (1-1) and Marco Reus (2-1) resulted from similar passages of play. Unfortunately, the Black & Yellows were unable to add to their tally in the second half. 

''We had 65% possession, but too often we didn't make the right decision,'' said Lucien Favre, who had further critical words for his side's performance: ''Sometimes we dribbled too much. Then we'd lose the ball, they'd counter-attack down the other end and all of a sudden we'd find ourselves in a very dangerous situation. We should look to play through the opposition defence with our passing game.'' 

Further statements made by the head coach gave additional insight into where works needs to be done: ''It was okay on the whole, but we're still missing something. We can't always score lots of goals.'' Favre has a clear vision of what his side now needs to focus on: ''We managed to keep a clean sheet against Leverkusen and Barca, but unfortunately not against Frankfurt and Bremen. It's not easy to win a game if you concede two goals.'' The injury-enforced absence of Mats Hummels and the resultant adjustment to the back-four clearly had a negative impact. 

There's still everything to play for at the top of the table, but there can be no doubts that a second consecutive 2-2 draw has soured the mood among the squad. Favre: ''We're disappointed today.''
Boris Rupert