Gio Reyna came off the bench for Borussia Dortmund as they were controversially denied a penalty in their frustrating draw with Bochum to see them drop to second place.
Bochum 1-1 Borussia Dortmund
Two goals early in the first half and denial of a penalty would see Borussia Dortmund lose their grip on first place in the Bundesliga standings as they shared the points with Bochum at Vonovia Ruhr Stadion.
Gio Reyna came off the bench for BVB to play the final nine minutes, completing all of his passes, winning two duels, and putting one shot on target.
The visitors received a shock just five minutes into the contest when Anthony Losilla fired his shot from outside of the box into the top corner of the goal to give Bochum the lead. However, Dortmund responded two minutes later when Donyell Malen’s cross from the right side found Sebastien Haller at the edge of the six-yard box and he gave it a flick over to Karim Adeyemi to tap home.
It appeared Dortmund had finally found a way through the Bundesliga’s worst defense, but further chances were spurned as they headed to the locker room for halftime.
It would be much of the same in the second half as BVB could not find a way to score more goals. Jude Bellingham had a good chance in the 77th minute when he fired a shot on target, but Bochum goalkeeper Manuel Reimann would pay it away from danger. Malen then followed up with an effort of his own, but his backheeled shot went agonizingly wide of the target.
Bellingham had one more chance for the visitors as it became very tense in the final minutes, but his header went wide of the goal.
A tough result for Dortmund as they will hope Bayern Munich sputter along the way to the end of the season.
Dortmund have dropped to second place in the standings with 61 points, a point behind Bayern.
Eintracht Frankfurt 1-1 Augsburg
Augsburg was the only team to score goals at both ends as they and Eintracht Frankfurt played out a draw at Deutsche Bank Park.
Paxten Aaronson played the final 23 minutes of the contest for the Eagles, completing 57 percent of his passes and winning two duels, while Timothy Chandler came off the bench to play a minute.
There were very few chances from both sides in the early stages of the game, but the hosts would take the lead after 25 minutes when Aurelio Buta’s cross from the right side was redirected goal bound by Augsburg’s Elvis Rexhbecaj, leaving his goalkeeper Tomas Koubek to try, and fail, to keep the ball out.
The second half would be different as the visitors came out more aggressive. They were rewarded for their efforts in the 58th minute when Ruben Vargas’ cross into the 12-yard box found his teammate Ermedin Demirovic who sent a brilliant volley past Frankfurt goalkeeper Kevin Trapp.
There was nothing in particular to wrote home about later in the game as both sides failed to conjure anymore serious chances to score.
Eintracht Frankfurt sits in ninth place in the standings with 43 points.
Notes
Elsewhere in the Bundesliga, John Brooks played the full 90 as Hoffenheim fell in a 1-0 defeat to RB Leipzig which had Caden Clark on the bench.
Jordan Pefok played 78 minutes for Union Berlin as they shared the points with Bayer Leverkusen following a 0-0 draw.
Joe Scally watched on from the bench as Borussia Monchengladbach fell in a narrow 2-1 loss to Stuttgart.
In the 2. Bundesliga, Lennard Maloney and Heidenheim took another step towards automatic promotion as they secured a 2-0 over Julian Green, Maximilian Dietz, and Greuther Furth.
Ryan Malone and Hansa Rostock gave their survival hopes a boost as they kept Terrence Boyd goalless in the 1-0 win over Kaiserslautern.
George Bello came on to play the final for Arminia Bielefeld in their 2-1 loss to Fabian Hurzeler-led St. Pauli.
Down in the 3. Liga, Nicolas Carrera went the distance for Zwickau as they were beaten 4-3 in a nail-biter against Osnabruck.
Justin Butler and Jalen Hawkins ensured Ingolstadt’s status in the third tier for next season following a 3-1 win over Mael Corboz and Verl.
Isaiah Young played 80 minutes for Rot-Weiss Essen as they played a 0-0 draw with Oldenburg.
Jann George came on to play the final 30 minutes as Bayreuth was on the wrong side of a 4-0 drubbing by Duisburg.
Kevin Lankford could only watch from the bench as Viktoria Cologne settled for a 1-1 draw with Erzgebirge Aue.
