Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday missed a bagful of chances to draw 1-1 at home with Augsburg, as they squandered the opportunity to make up ground in the Bundesliga title race heading into the winter break.
South Korean Ji Dong-won beat goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller at the second attempt in the 33rd minute to put the visitors ahead.
Dortmund, who had hit the post through Mario Goetze in the ninth minute, dominated late in the first half, but could not make their pressure count until Ousmane Dembele leveled two minutes after the restart.
The hosts had numerous chances in a one-sided second half, with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, the Bundesliga’s top scorer, going close a half-dozen times.
Dortmund are fourth on 27 points, nine points adrift of leaders Bayern Munich and RB Leipzig, who were yesterday to face each other.
“I think the game tonight reflects our first half of the season,” Dortmund coach Thomas Tuchel said after their third consecutive league draw.
“We are being punished too often. We should be able at some point to keep a clean sheet and win 1-0,” Tuchel said. “We will obviously not stop working at it. We need to be consistent in our competitions.”
Eintracht Frankfurt moved up to third on 29 after beating 10-man FSV Mainz 05 3-0, with Branimir Hrgota scoring twice as they secured a fourth victory in their past seven league games.
Mario Gomez’s winner gave VfL Wolfsburg a 2-1 victory over Borussia Moenchengladbach that left both teams on 16 points and heaped further pressure on Gladbach coach Andre Schubert following their fifth loss in the past seven games.
Hamburg SV climbed into the relegation playoff spot after edging past Schalke 04 2-1.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later