The U23s played one of their Regionalliga West games in hand at SV Rödinghausen on Tuesday evening. Having fallen behind early on, coach Jan Siewert's charges dominated proceedings and turned the game on its head to lead 2-1 late on. But with minutes remaining, the hosts restored parity to snatch a draw from the clutches of defeat and Dortmund could count themselves unlucky to leave the field with a point.

The statistics pointed towards BVB being clear favourites for this one. They had won four and drawn one of their previous five matches against Rödinghausen, scoring 12 goals and conceding four in the process. Coach Jan Siewert made three changes to the starting XI that were beaten in Erndtebrück last time out, with Balint Bajner, Jonas Arweiler and Amos Pieper replacing Philipp Hanke, Patrick Pflücke and Haymenn Bah-Traore in the line-up. Bajner in particular had earned himself the right to start following a string of decent displays from the bench in recent weeks.

The evening got off to a bad start for the U23s, however, as the hosts converted their first chance of the match in the third minute to take the lead. The source of the goal was a free-kick by Tobias Steffen, whose effort flew past shot-stopper Dominik Reimann and straight into the net. Rödinghausen were the superior side in the opening stages and created a spate of further chances to double their lead, the best of which came in the ninth minute when Dominik Reimann did well to save a long-range effort from Bülter. The first decent chance at the other end did not come until the 17th minute, when Massimo Ornatelli struck a free-kick that was too central and presented no problems for home goalkeeper Schönwälder. BVB became increasingly dangerous in the period that followed that chance, getting stuck into the tackles and often winning the second balls thanks to the physical presence of centre-forward partnership Pavlidis and Bajner.

The Black & Yellows eventually restored parity on 29 minutes, when Evangelos Pavlidis deservedly drew the visitors level by tucking home the rebound from a Massimo Ornatelli free-kick. It was a moment in which BVB and their approximately 500 travelling fans got their reward for the effort invested into the opening 45 minutes. But the tempo cooled down in what remained of the first half with the game being broken up by repeated fouls. The first half finished with the score at 1-1, with the second half of the first half laying the groundwork for a decent second period.

Borussia continued with the same starting XI and level of performance after the interval, building the play perfectly from their centre-backs. One such passage of play involved a long ball to Arweiler, who crossed towards the penalty spot where Bajner was lurking to deservedly make the score 2-1 in the 56th minute. It was the ideal start to the second period and followed on smoothly from where they had left off in the first half. It was Balint Bajner's reward for his hard-working performance up top and he continued to look full of confidence thereafter. Following the goal, Jan Siewert made his first personnel change and brought on Abdelmajid Bouali to replace Jonas Arweiler, the provider of the second goal. The Dutchman slotted into Arweiler's position in attacking midfield. The next change came ten minutes later, with the excellent Bajner making way for Gianluca Rizzo, a mid-season arrival whose pace would be a handy advantage in the visitors' counter-attacks. SV Rödinghausen, who had begun the match so brightly, offered little going forward after the break and the Dortmund rearguard were rarely troubled.

BVB, meanwhile, looked dangerous from set-pieces with Rizzo hitting a shot narrowly over following a corner in the 70th minute. The visitors continued to have the game under control in front of 1,500 fans at the Häcker Wiehenstadion, putting their hosts under pressure quickly to stop them from building any meaningful attacks. Jan Siewert's third and final change came ten minutes from time, with Philipp Hanke coming on in the place of Sören Dieckmann. Herbert Bockhorn dropped into the back four, while Philipp Hanke took up Bockhorn's position in attacking midfield. All in all, BVB looked a step ahead of their hosts, who often had luck to thank for getting anywhere near the Dortmund goal. It was from one such slice of luck that Rödinghausen undeservedly levelled the scores on the 84-minute mark, with Daniel Flottmann rising the highest to head home a free-kick. But the game wasn't over yet. The Black & Yellows took a quick moment to gather themselves and then immediately went in search of the winner. A shot from Massimo Ornatelli in the 88th minute sailed just centimetres wide of the goal, but there were to be few incidents of note thereafter and when the final whistle blew the visitors were forced to settle for a point.

The U23s are next in action on Friday, when they host Fortuna Düsseldorf II at the Rote Erde Stadium at 19:00 CET.