DORTMUND 3-4 BOCHUM; DORTMUND LOSE AT HOME TO BOCHUM IN A 7 GOALS THRILLER.
On the 2000th Bundesliga matchday, a full Signal Iduna Park was treated to a scintillating derby, with VfL Bochum defeating Borussia Dortmund 4-3 thanks to two goals in the final ten minutes. The result sees ‘Die Unabsteigbaren’ end an eight-game winless run against Dortmund.
As expected, the derby got off to a pulsating start. After Marco Rose’s men fluffed their lines from point-blank range at one end of the pitch, Bochum went straight back down the other to strike the first blow. Sebastian Polter capped off a counter-attack, heading home a superb Takuma Asano cross to quieten the raucous home crowd inside five minutes. It quickly went from bad to worse for ‘Die Schwarzgelben’ when Asano played the ball to the edge of the Dortmund box, where Gerrit Holtmann was waiting to hit a fantastic curling shot in off the post and double his side’s lead before the tenth minute.
The hosts were given a way back into the match less than ten minutes later when Miloš Pantović was judged to have handled the ball in the box, resulting in a penalty kick dispatched with aplomb by Erling Braut Haaland. Astonishingly, Bochum conceded a second spot-kick for handball just shy of the half-hour mark. Haaland stepped up again and coolly slotted home from 12 yards, levelling proceedings at 2-2.
The Norwegian wrapped up his hat-trick on the hour mark thanks to a superb ball across the face of goal from Marco Reus to give the hosts the lead for the first time of the day. Dramatically, Bochum restored parity with ten minutes remaining when second-half substitute Jürgen Locadia took down an aerial ball superbly before turning and stabbing home. To add to the drama, Bochum were awarded an 85th-minute penalty when Axel Witsel handled in the box. The spot-kick was driven home by Miloš Pantović to send the travelling Bochum supporters into a frenzy as the visitors snatched all three points.
Coming from behind only to lose at the death was a microcosm of Dortmund’s frustrating season. For ‘Die Schwarzgelben’, this was only their second loss in their last 16 matches at home against Bochum
