Marco Reus scored one goal and set up another as Borussia Dortmund beat Augsburg 3-2 away on Friday for the side’s first win of the new Bundesliga season.
Reus opened the scoring in the 11th, finishing off a slick move involving Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Kevin Grosskreutz that carved open the Augsburg defense. Reus’ one-two with Grosskreutz took out three Augsburg defenders before he clipped his shot coolly inside the far post.
Greek defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos scored with a header from Reus’ corner three minutes later.
Photo: Reuters
“I’m just happy to be back on the pitch, to be playing football,” said Reus, who missed Germany’s World Cup-winning campaign through injury.
Dortmund created the lion’s share of chances and substitute Adrian Ramos all but sealed the result in the 78th minute, when he scored on a rebound after Augsburg goalkeeper Marwin Hitz saved Mkhitaryan’s initial effort.
However, Augsburg striker Raul Bobadilla pulled one back with eight minutes to play — after Mkhitaryan had a penalty appeal turned down — and Tim Matavz ensured a frenetic finale by scoring in the 90th.
“We were too focused on the penalty decision rather than what was happening on the pitch,” Dortmund defender Neven Subotic said.
“We came here with the intention to play at full throttle for the whole 90 minutes, a couple more than 90 minutes, and that didn’t quite work out,” he added.
Dortmund ’keeper Roman Weidenfeller denied Tobias Werner an equalizer in injury-time.
“A huge compliment to the side for continuing to play after it was 3-0,” Augsburg general manager Stefan Reuter said. “Any time you score a goal the belief comes flooding back that perhaps something can be achieved.”
Dortmund lost their opening game of the season to Bayer 04 Leverkusen on Saturday last week.
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