Borussia Dortmund’s league struggles continued on Saturday as the visitors were held to a 1-1 draw at Augsburg.
The draw, combined with RB Leipzig’s 3-1 home win over Hoffenheim later on Saturday, means Dortmund are now five points off fourth spot with 15 games played.
Despite topping a Champions League group which included Paris Saint-Germain, AC Milan and Newcastle, Dortmund have won just one of seven league games since October.
Dortmund coach Edin Terzic lamented his side’s poor finishing, saying “we were close today, but we weren’t successful and that’s very unsatisfying”.
Ermedin Demirovic opened the hosts’ account after 23 minutes, pushing off a challenge from Nico Schlotterbeck before slotting home.
The Dortmund offender appealed for a foul, but the referee allowed the goal after a VAR review.
“I don’t want to comment on refereeing decisions, but all I’ll say is we had a different opinion,” said Terzic.
Donyell Malen scored for Dortmund shortly after, Niclas Fuellkrug finding the Dutchman with a clever backheeled pass to nutmeg the Augsburg defender.
Dortmund midfielder Julian Brandt had a late chance to claim all three points, but he blasted his injury-time shot straight at Augsburg goalie Finn Dahmen.
Augsburg boss Jess Thorup, who has lost just once in eight matches since taking over in October, said “today was the best chance for us to see where we stand against the better teams… we’ve done well.”
Leipzig farewell Forsberg
RB Leipzig said goodbye to stalwart Emil Forsberg in style, the Sweden midfielder scoring late in a 3-1 win over Hoffenheim.
Forsberg came off the bench with the scores locked at 1-1, after former Liverpool defender Ozan Kabak’s smart header had cancelled out home defender Lukas Klostermann’s goal.
Just four minutes later, the Swede collected a Lois Openda cross and unleashed a rocket to give the home side the lead.
Forsberg then set up Leipzig’s third, his fierce shot rebounding off Hoffenheim goalie Oliver Baumann and into the path of Mohamed Simakan, who blasted home.
“To score a goal in my last game at home, it feels great,” Forsberg told Sky Germany.
Forsberg joined the then second-division Leipzig in 2015 but is set to move to sister club New York Red Bulls in January and was playing in front of the home fans for the last time.
Union Berlin, whose inaugural Champions League journey ended at the hands of Real Madrid in the German capital on Tuesday, lost 3-0 at Bochum.
Goals from Takuma Asano, Goncalo Paciencia and a late penalty from Kevin Stoeger earned a comfortable win, extending the gap to the relegation places to six points.
Ten-man Wolfsburg fought to a 1-0 win away at promoted Darmstadt, Croatia midfielder Lovro Majer scoring the only goal.
Wolfsburg fell to ten men midway through the first-half, centre-back Maxence Lacroix seeing red for a last-man foul.
The French defender now been red carded five times in less than 100 games for Wolfsburg — and has more red cards than any other Wolfsburg player.
Elsewhere, promoted Heidenheim won 1-0 at Mainz thanks to an early goal from Marvin Pieringer, leaving the floundering hosts stuck in the bottom two.
The remainder of the top four are in action on Sunday, with second-placed Bayern Munich hosting fourth-placed Stuttgart, while leaders Leverkusen are at home to Frankfurt.
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