Wasteful Borussia Dortmund held to 1-1 draw by FC Köln

Borussia Dortmund suffered a big blow in their hopes of winning the Bundesliga title as they were held to a 1-1 draw by FC Köln.

Borussia Dortmund were left frustrated on Sunday evening as they were held to a 1-1 draw by a determined FC Köln side. The Black and Yellows took the lead early on through Marius Wolf, but were pegged back by Sebastian Andersson’s first-half equaliser.

Dortmund were second best for the majority of the game, but still created enough chances to get the three points. And failure to make the most of those chances proved to be costly, as Marco Rose’s side dropped precious points in the title race.

It was a disappointing night for Borussia Dortmund in front of 50,000 supporters at the RheinEnergieStadion, and now they must overcome a six point gap in the remaining seven games if they want to win the Bundesliga title this season.

Erling Haaland and Gio Reyna both returned to the starting XI to bolster the Borussia Dortmund attack. While the fit-again Manuel Akanji replaced Marin Pongracic at centre-back. Marco Rose was forced into making a change to his XI shortly before kick-off after Nico Schulz suffered an injury during the warm-ups. Raphael Guerreiro replaced him in the line-up.

Borussia Dortmund got off to a fast start and opened the scoring in just the eighth minute, with Marius Wolf scoring his third goal of the season against the club he spent last season on loan with.

Jude Bellingham picked Wolf out with a brilliant long ball, and the winger controlled the ball really well before finishing past the Köln goalkeeper.

Köln began to take over the game after Borussia Dortmund’s goal. And after creating a few decent half chances, they finally managed to get back on level terms in the 36th minute. Sebastian Andersson got on the end of Anthony Modeste’s flick-on before tapping the ball into the back of the net.

Andersson had a chance to give Köln the lead in the 41st minute. But he fired his header over the bar, and the two sides went into the break on level terms.

Borussia Dortmund switched to a back three after the break, as Felix Passlack’s injury led to the introduction of Mats Hummels.

Haaland had Dortmund’s best chance of the game in the 56th minute, but he failed to beat the Köln goalkeeper after being played through on goal by Reyna. The USMNT international had a chance of his own on a breakaway, but took too long in deciding what to do. That allowed Jan Thielmann to swoop in and make the tackle.

Unlike Wednesday, there wasn’t to be any late drama and the two sides shared the spoils after a hard fought 90 minutes.

A draw was a fair result in the end as Borussia Dortmund simply didn’t do enough to deserve the three points. They gave themselves a glimmer of hope of catching Bayern in the title race earlier this week. But now they go into the international break having let that hope slip once again.