Yet again, Borussia Dortmund reduced the pressure of Bayern Munich on the title race in Bundesliga after a flattened performance against the relegation battling team FC Augsburg. On Sunday, they had to finish the game on a 1-1 draw away at the Augsburg Arena.
The inconsistent performance from the team is affecting their chances to close the gap between the table-toppers Bayern Munich. The draw against Augsburg will be a significant blow to their hopes of at least fighting for the Bundesliga this season. The result left Dortmund on 50 points in second place, eight behind Bayern, who beat Eintracht Frankfurt 1-0 on Saturday.
It was another performance from Borussia Dortmund that showed the team were missing the attacking threat that Erling Haaland used to provide in the earlier games.
FC Augsburg took advantage of the inconsistency of the away team and grabbed one valuable point. It helped them keep their hopes of staying in the Bundesliga for next season. Right now, they are 15th in the point table with 23 points.
Dortmund were looking to bounce back from their midweek Europa League exit to Rangers but were still without top striker Erling Haaland and also lost captain Marco Reus because of a knock. Without those two star players, the away team was clueless in the whole 90 minutes, reducing their attacking threat.
Dortmund took the lead in the first half when Thorgan Hazard scored the opening goal in the 35th minute. He scored with his individual effort after cutting into the box and then defeating two defenders to break the deadlock.
After taking the lead in the first half through Thorgan Hazard, the Black and Yellows could not go on and score again. Donyell Malen came close to a second goal in the 51st minute when his shot was tipped onto the bar by Augsburg keeper Rafal Gikiewicz.
FC Augsburg scored the equaliser in the 78th minute through Noah Joel Sarenren-Bazee when Dortmund was starting to get tired after trying hard for the second goal. Iago passed the ball into the box, and Noah Joel Sarenren-Bazee scored the equaliser with a superb header.
Dortmund boss Marco Rose was disappointed in his team’s performance in the second half, and it was evident in his words. He said: “I saw a team that tried a lot under the circumstances after Thursday’s game, that didn’t do everything right but still kept control of the game. We made a few simple mistakes, also because Augsburg kept posing us challenges.”
“In the beginning of the second half, Augsburg looked a bit unsettled. I think at that stage we should have just scored the second goal and killed the game. It was clear that our energy levels would drop off at some point. That’s when Augsburg got back into the game. We were careless with the crosses and didn’t defend them well.”
