Borussia Dortmund 2-2 Werder Bremen: 4 talking points | Bundesliga 2019/20
Despite plenty of attacking impetus and attempts at goal, Borussia Dortmund were unable to brush aside visitors Werder Bremen to make it three draws in a row for Lucien Favre's side.
The game got off to a lightning start with Dortmund threatening early on, but it would be the visitors who would strike first with Milot Rashica opening the scoring in only the 7th minute. That lead barely lasted two minutes as Mario Gotze who replaced Paco Alcacer in the starting XI got onto the scoresheet.
Werder Bremen spent most of the game sitting back and absorbing Dortmund's pressure. But in the 41st minute, a curling cross from Thorgan Hazard found the head of Marco Reus who put his side ahead with a deft header under pressure. It seemed like Dortmund would walk out in the second half and build on their lead.
Bremen, though, had different ideas. They went with a different tack at the start of the second half as they forced Dortmund back. The breakthrough for them came from a corner that Friedl was in the right place to tuck into the back of the net.
Despite Dortmund throwing everything they could at Werder for the rest of the game, they weren't able to penetrate their defence again.
#4. Gotze shines, Alcacer comes up short
After a couple of underwhelming performances from Paco Alcacer in the games preceding this one, Favre opted to rest him and start with Mario Gotze. The German international showed what Dortmund had been missing in the forward position as he brought the likes of Hazard and Reus into play with his touch. He was also unafraid to go wide and swap places with Reus as he contributed to the build-up. His headed goal was an opportunistic one that smelt slightly like on that Paco Alcacer himself would be proud of.
Lacking match fitness, he was replaced by Alcacer in the second half as Dortmund chased the game. The Spaniard had two big chances come his way before the end of the game that he would've buried on another day, but he seemed to be coming up short. On the first occasion he missed his kick by inches, and on the other he connected but blazed it slightly higher than the crossbar.
