Haaland the hero in dramatic Dortmund win
Erling Haaland scored a dramatic stoppage-time winner as Borussia Dortmund recovered from a defeat last week to edge past Hoffenheim 3-2 in the Bundesliga.… Show More
Erling Haaland scored a dramatic stoppage-time winner as Borussia Dortmund recovered from a defeat last week to edge past Hoffenheim 3-2 in the Bundesliga.
American Gio Reyna scored Dortmund's opener at Signal Iduna Park on the day he became the youngest player to make 50 Bundesliga appearances and England youngster Jude Bellingham also scored for the hosts, but it was a far from routine win for Marco Rose's men.
Hoffenheim fired off an early warning shot in the third minute when Andrej Kramaric headed a Jacob Bruun Larsen cross back off the Dortmund crossbar, but that only served to spark the home side to life and it dominated the rest of the first half.
Hoffenheim Oliver Baumann was busy throughout the opening 45 minutes, saving efforts from Reyna and Manuel Akanji, while Thomas Meunier and Marco Reus both had efforts off target in front of the restricted 25,000 crowd.
Haaland got in on the action after interplay with Reus, but couldn't direct his header at the far post on goal.
It was Hoffenheim that almost took the lead before the break when former Dortmund winger Bruun Larsen pounced on a loose ball in midfield and played in Christoph Baumgartner, but he was denied by Gregor Kobel.
Hoffenheim started the second period well, but failed to get away a telling shot and Dortmund went up the other end to put Reyna in for the opener on 49 minutes. He latched onto Bellingham's pass on the edge of the box and thrashed it past Baumann.
Kramaric had a golden chance to level things up on the hour mark when Hoffenheim again took advantage of lax play in midfield and sent the Croatian away through the middle, but Kobel produced a brilliant save one-on-one to deny him.
There was little the new Dortmund goalkeeper could do moments later, though, when Dennis Geiger slipped in Baumgartner down the right and he drilled his shot across Kobel and into the far corner to level matters.
However, the home side's lead was restored in style by Bellingham. Having created the first goal, the 18-year-old controlled an attempted clearance on his thigh and fired a half-volley into the bottom corner.
Hoffenheim thought it had earned a point in the final minute when Munas Dabbur put away a corner flicked on to the far post, but Haaland would have the last say.
Baumann had made two sharp stops from close range to deny Marius Wolf and Youssoufa Moukoko but was powerless when the Norwegian lashed home the third from a couple of yards out to snatch all three points and send Dortmund to the top of the Bundesliga table, temporarily at least.
