Berlin: Borussia Dortmund bounced back from a 2-1 deficit after Mats Hummels’ brace paved the way for a 4-2 victory over 10-men Freiburg at the fourth round of the Bundesliga.
The BVB started brightly on the road as Ramy Bensebaini sent a first warning in the sixth minute before Hummels broke the deadlock, nodding home Julian Brandt’s whipped corner into the box with 11 minutes into the match, reports Xinhua.
Freiburg responded with furious attacks and created presentable chances through Michael Gregoritsch, who missed the target narrowly wide and Philipp Lienhart, who rattled the outside of the left post at the half hour mark.
Freiburg’s effort paid off just before the break as Lucas Holer equalized the scoring before Nicolas Hofler’s header turned the tides in the injury time of the first half.
After the break, both sides traded attacks, but Brandt pulled wide whereas Freiburg’s Vincenzo Grifo lacked in accuracy from promising position.
The visitors eventually levelled the scores at the hour mark when Niclas Fullkrug’s good build-up work helped Donyell Malen to make it 2-2.
In the 82nd minute, Hofler weakened his team after he was sent off for a rude foul play on Marcel Sabitzer.
Dortmund benefitted on its numerical advantage and made it 3-2 six minutes later as Hummels latched onto a loose ball inside Freiburg’s penalty area.
Freiburg’s resistance was broken while the BVB wasn’t done with the scoring and doubled its lead through Marco Reus in the added time.
“I didn’t like that we couldn’t maintain our momentum after we had taken the lead early on. I like though, that we have been able to come back even though we were one goal down in the first half,” said Dortmund coach Edin Terzic.
Elsewhere, Leipzig jump on the third spot after smoothing the way for the victory with three goals within 27 minutes against hapless Augsburg. Union Berlin suffered its second straight defeat as Wolfsburg snatched a narrow 2-1 win on home soil. Stuttgart’s Serhou Guirassy provided a second-half hat trick to edge winless Mainz 3-0. Hoffenheim beat Cologne 3-1 and Eintracht Frankfurt shared the spoils with Bochum following a 1-1 stalemate.
–IANS