Flu-hit Bundesliga leaders Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday crashed out of the DFB Pokal, losing a penalty shoot-out at home to Werder Bremen following a 3-3 draw after extra-time.
Goalkeeper Jiri Pavlenka was Bremen’s hero in the shoot-out as he saved Dortmund’s opening attempts from Paco Alcacer and Maximilian Philipp as the visitors won the round-of-16 tie 4-2 on penalties.
It finished 1-1 over 90 minutes after Dortmund captain Marco Reus rifled home a free-kick to cancel out an early goal by Bremen’s Milot Rashica.
Photo: Reuters
The game exploded into life with four goals in extra-time as Bremen twice equalized, through substitutes Claudio Pizarro and Martin Harnik, to force penalties after Chelsea-bound Christian Pulisic and Achraf Hakimi had scored for Dortmund.
“It’s a bitter defeat,” Dortmund striker Mario Goetze said. “We shouldn’t have conceded two equalizers in extra-time and then to lose on penalties is really tough.”
Peru veteran Pizarro, who turns 41 in October, was delighted with his 56th DFB Pokal goal.
“That will have done us good — we deserved to go through,” the former Chelsea and Bayern Munich striker said.
Flu meant Dortmund were without England winger Jadon Sancho and defender Lukasz Piszczek, as well as first-choice goalkeeper Roman Burki and his backup, Switzerland international Marwin Hitz.
It meant third-choice goalkeeper Eric Oelschlaegel made his Dortmund debut against Bremen, the club he left in June last year after six years.
The 23-year-old was beaten after just five minutes when Rashica stabbed home a Max Kruse free-kick to stun the sell-out crowd of 80,500.
Dortmund equalized just before halftime when Reus fired home a superb free-kick for his 17th goal of the season.
Both sides had chances late in the second half as Oelschlaegel made a superb one-handed save from a Kruse free-kick.
Dortmund midfielder Thomas Delaney then hit the crossbar with the 90 minutes up.
Pulisic looked to have settled the matter by netting just before the end of the first period of extra-time after dribbling through the away defense.
However, Bremen came back with Pizarro knocking the ball home at the second attempt in a goal-mouth scramble to make it 2-2 on 108 minutes.
Dortmund regained the lead when defender Achraf Hakimi finished off a move he started on 113 minutes, but Harnik leveled in the 119th minute before Pavlenka’s heroics in the shoot-out.
Earlier on Tuesday, Bayer 04 Leverkusen, who pulled off a shock 3-1 win over Bayern Munich on Saturday, were another big-name casualty as they slumped to a 2-1 defeat at second-tier Heidenheim 1846.
Germany winger Julian Brandt gave Leverkusen the lead, but after Heidenheim striker Nikola Dovedan equalized, midfielder Maurice Multhaup hit the winner 18 minutes from time after previously hitting the bar.
Hamburg SV were another German second-tier club to boot a Bundesliga club out of the round-of-16 when 20-year-old Turkey international Berkay Ozcan scored their second-half winner in a 1-0 victory over Nuremberg.
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