Borussia Dortmund dropped points at home for the first time this season after being held to a 2-2 draw by Werder Bremen.
Having dealt Dortmund‘s title hopes a hammer blow in an unlikely 2-2 draw late last season, Werder put the cat amongst the pigeons once again on their return to the Signal Iduna Park. The returning Milot Rashica capitalised on some hesitant defending to fire the Green-Whites into an eighth-minute lead, but parity lasted barely 60 seconds as Mario Götze headed in from Lukasz Piszczek to level. Thorgan Hazard, Jadon Sancho and Rashica traded chances, before Marco Reus popped up with a deft close-range header to give BVB the half-time advantage.
Dortmund might have been even better off at the break were it not for Jiri Pavlenka‘s five save to deny Mahmoud Dahoud. Roman Bürki pulled off an impressive stop of his own to thwart USA international Josh Sargent soon after the restart, but was powerless to prevent Marco Friedl levelling moments later – the former Bayern Munich defender poking in from Sargent. Achraf Hakimi tested Pavlenka and Hazard saw an effort blocked as BVB went in search of a late winner. They almost got one, but substitute Paco Alcacer was unable to apply the finishing touch to a pair of fine passes – first from Sancho and then Julian Brandt.
