Mönchengladbach (dpa) – Borussia Dortmund once again disappointed in a poor prestige away to Borussia Mönchengladbach. At 1:1 (0:0), BVB remained winless in their sixth away game this season. Dortmund’s lead after a great individual performance by the in-form Jamie Gittens (65th minute) was countered by Kevin Stöger with a penalty goal (71st).

Coach Nuri Sahin’s team also had a lot of luck in the first half when referee Tobias Stieler did not award a penalty for Gladbach after a handball by Serhou Guirassy in his own penalty area. As a result, the Borussia duel ended without a winner for the first time in almost twelve years. Gladbach’s Tomas Cvancara, who had just been substituted, saw yellow-red in stoppage time (90+5).

Disastrous Dortmund away record

The gap between fifth-placed Dortmund and the Champions League places grew to three points. This is due to the poor away record of the previous season’s Champions League finalist: two points out of a maximum of 18 is the record of a relegation candidate. Gladbach remains in eleventh place in the middle of the table with 18 points from 13 games.

At the start, BVB seemed willing to improve their disastrous away record and gain control early on. However, the Gladbachers seemed strangely inhibited in their build-up to the game, played without any overview and also lacked passes or runs in depth.

Stieler does not punish Guirassy handball

Things got tricky for Dortmund after 15 minutes with Guirassy’s handball, but video referee Tobias Reichel also didn’t classify this as worthy of a penalty. Shortly before, the Gladbachers had been denied a penalty when their former professional Ramy Bensebaini got on the foot of Franck Honorat.

Otherwise, Borussia from the Lower Rhine stood out mainly due to their technical deficiencies and poor passing game, which the Westphalian Borussia were unable to take advantage of. Marcel Sabitzer missed the best chance after just over five minutes with a shot past the goal.

After the excitement surrounding Guirassy’s handball, the duel became increasingly flat. Dortmund also appeared extremely clumsy in their offensive efforts and for a long time did not play as if qualifying for the Champions League again was the goal.

Gladbach clearly dominated in the second half

After the break, Gladbach Borussia became more courageous and gained more and more control of the game. But BVB took the lead through Gittens, who scored in the third game of the series and hit the ball unstoppably under the crossbar.

Later, referee Stieler was once again the focus when he rightly did not punish an alleged handball by Bensebaini in the penalty area. Immediately afterwards, the video referee had to point out a clear foul by Pascal Groß on his national team colleague Tim Kleindienst. This time the penalty whistle was delayed.

Summer signing Stöger, who was given preference over Robin Hack in the starting line-up this time, didn’t miss this chance and scored the deserved equaliser.

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