BVB were on the verge of their second away win of the season but – to the frustration of the management, coaching staff and players alike – had their lead cancelled out for the second time that evening with two minutes remaining. "That's not how a top team plays," said Michael Zorc after the 2-2 draw at Eintracht Frankfurt.

In the opening stages on Sunday evening, it looked as though the men from Hesse would struggle to continue their strong home run against a dominant Dortmund. BVB took an early lead through Axel Witsel and had the game under control – their opponents were chasing shadows at times – but they could not get the all-important second goal. "We played very, very well at times but there were occasions when our final or penultimate pass was not good," concluded Lucien Favre. "We had big chances to score more goals." His counterpart Adi Hütter declared: "Dortmund could have killed the game in the opening 35 minutes. We were not even in contention in the first 35 minutes."

image

In the opening 30 minutes of both halves, the Black & Yellows had almost twice as many shots as the Eagles (13-7) – including the one that Jadon Sancho scored to make it 2-1. "We didn't play badly but it wasn't the optimal performance to get the win," bemoaned Favre. "And we allowed them the time to come back. Lots of possession giveaways for no reason," he added sullenly.

When Frankfurt began to take more risks late on – introducing Dost to lead the line and bringing on the more attack-minded Kamada and Chandler to replace Kohr and Touré – and attempted to unsettle their opposition with a series of powerful crosses from both flanks into the box, Dortmund's dominance began to wane. Eintracht had significantly more shots in the final quarter-hour (5-2), among them the one that led to the second equaliser. The fact it was an own goal made it all the more bitter! But had Thomas Delaney not got his foot on it, there were enough Frankfurt players lying in wait to tap home Kamada's cross-cum-shot.

"There were way too many simple possession giveaways. That made for an uneasy game. We're to blame for that," said a frustrated Delaney. "We didn't defend as well as we can."

For the first time in years, there will be no midweek domestic fixtures (league or cup) between the first and second UEFA Champions League matchdays. As a result, the players and coaching staff will have the opportunity to work on their shortcomings before returning to Bundesliga action at home to Werder Bremen on Saturday evening.
Boris Rupert