Dortmund's Lukasz Piszczek (l.) vents his frustration as Dortmund let their advantage slip
Dortmund's Lukasz Piszczek (l.) vents his frustration as Dortmund let their advantage slip

Points shared in six-goal thriller

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Frankfurt - Eintracht Frankfurt maintained their unbeaten start to the season in a thrilling 3-3 draw at home to defending Bundesliga champions Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday evening.

One-sided affair

The visitors will view the result as two points lost, after twice throwing away the lead and they are now already seven points behind league leaders Bayern Munich.

Despite suffering their first defeat in 32 Bundesliga fixtures last time out, Dortmund coach Jürgen Klopp opted for continuity and kept the core of his starting eleven the same. The only difference to the 3-2 defeat against Hamburg on Saturday was Jukub Blaszczykowski replacing Mario Götze in attacking midfield. If there was a hangover from that loss, the visitors quickly shook it off, with Lukasz Piszczek beating Bastain Oczipka to get to the by-line, only for his cross to be cut out.

It was an early warning that was a precursor of things to come. Once again Piszczek marauded down the right wing, before cutting inside just outside Frankfurt's penalty area. With the Pole shaping to shoot, Oczipka lunged to block his effort, but could only deflect it past a wrong-footed Kevin Trapp to give the visitors the lead. The Dortmund right-back was again involved when the reigning champions doubled their advantage, once more skipping past Oczipka on the right before pulling the ball back to Reus, who swept home a superb first time effort from the edge of the box.

Fightback


Yet Frankfurt, with four wins from their opening four games, still showed plenty of self-belief and came within a whisker of pulling a goal back when Alexander Meier's 20-yard free-kick flew over the wall and just wide of Roman Weidenfeller's post. Seemingly content with their lead, the Yellow-Blacks sat back and Frankfurt grew in confidence as they controlled the final minutes of the first-half, albeit without troubling Dortmund's goal again.

Klopp's men were made to pay for winding down prior to the break, as the hosts re-emerged from the tunnel sensing their guests' vulnerability in what was a frenetic ten-minute period. Mats Hummels lost possession in the centre-circle and Frankfurt immediately launched a counter-attack, which ended with Takashi Inui finding Stefan Aigner, who smashed a terrific shot into the top corner. With the wind now very much in their sails, Frankfurt pushed for an equailser and drew level when Inui met Aigner's fizzing right-wing cross to head past Weidenfeller.

Unpredicatable


Parity was not to last long though, as Mario Götze - who replaced the injured Reus at half time - robbed Anderson in the box and curled a sumptuous shot with the outside of his right boot beyond Trapp's reach and into the bottom corner. Both teams subsequently took a breather, keen not to concede another quickfire goal and both coaches used the period to make substitutions in order to bring more stability.

It remained an entertaining, if less hectic, encounter which had a final twist when Anderson made up for being caught in possession for Dortmund's third by heading in from close range from Oczipka's teasing in-swinging cross from the right. Neither side was happy to settle for a point and continued to attack in the closing stages, this time without success. While both can justifiably be disappointed not to have won, fans at the sold-out Commerzbank Arena won't have been complaining.

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