Well, that was a thing that happened. Bundelisga leaders Borussia Dortmund would have been expecting a tough game at home against VFB Stuttgart, but neither side would have been expecting what ended up transpiring at the Wastfalenstadion on Friday - an insane 4-4 draw that featured both sides coming from behind twice and six goals in the final twenty minutes.
Borussia Dortmund Vs. Stuttgart, 2012 Bundesliga: Final Score 4-4 After Thriller
For a long time it actually looked like a pretty standard Dortmund home game in that they were winning pretty comfortably. Shinji Kagawa opened up the scoring just after the half-hour mark, finishing off a move he’d started after Sebastian Kehl knocked down a left-sided cross for him to sweep home from close range. Jacob Blaszczykowski made it 2-0 just after the break, finishing easily past Sven Ulreich when put free on goal by Mats Hummels’ clever cross.
From there, Dortmund should have cruised. They didn’t.
Vedad Ibisevic pulled one back for the visitors with twenty minutes left after a well-worked free kick enabled Zdravko Kuzmanovic to flick the ball back to him ten yards from goal, and it was no consolation - Stuttgart would score twice more in the next ten minutes to take a 3-2 lead. It was Julien Scheiber who notched both goals, dancing past Roman Weidenfeller for his first before a sweet left-footed finish from 16 yards saw Stuttgart take the lead.
Dortmund had suddenly gone from a comfortable lead to a one-goal deficit, and they were pretty unhappy about it. Yellow shirts surged forwards and before long Hummels had the equaliser thanks to some odd defending by Stuttgart, who simply stood off the centre back and allowed him to rifle a shot into Ulreich’s bottom corner from just outside the area.
And they weren’t done there - although injury time was looming the hosts knew they’d be able to snatch another goal, and a series of corner ended up with Ivan Perisic burying a stunning volley right into the top corner from ten yards out to make it 4-3. The home fans went mental, and so too did Jurgen Klopp on the sideline - three points were seemingly secure.
Except they weren’t. The second and third minutes of injury time saw some absolutely shocking defending by Dortmund, and ultimately that meant that substitute Christian Gentner was allowed to waltz into the box, cut back past a desperate tackle, and bring the Westfalenstadion crashing back down to earth with a cool finish to make it 4-4.
It was a thrilling match, but Dortmund would have far preferred the boring three points. They’ve lost yet more ground to the onrushing Bayern Munich in the title race, and they would have won here if not for a pair of pretty awful defensive collapses. Yike.
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