Darmstadt score late equalizer to hold Borussia Dortmund
Captain Aytac Sulu scored a dramatic equalizer as newly-promoted Darmstadt held title-chasers Borussia Dortmund to a 2-2 draw.
Sulu, the scorer in the 1-0 win at Leverkusen, popped up with another massive strike in the final minute to give Dirk Schuster's men a share of the spoils. Despite leading through Marcel Heller on 17 minutes, Dortmund eventually broke down the resistance.
Aubameyang, who has scored in his first seven league games this season, scored twice in an eight minute period to put the home side in the driving seat. But Sulu blasted home in the box to make it two successive draws for Thomas Tuchel's men.
Darmstadt hasn't been a comfortable opponent for any side in the Bundesliga this season, their first year in the Bundesliga for 33 years. The side from the Rhineland won back-to-back promotions in the third and second division to secure a miraculous return to the Bundesliga late last season.
To put Darmstadt's sensational rise into context, in October 2013, the Lillies were playing in Dortmund - but at the Rote Erde stadium, the home ground of Dortmund's second side which is adjacent to Signal Iduna Park in a midweek third division encounter. How times have changed ...
The visitors were immediately on the back-foot with goalkeeper Christian Mathenia saving shots from Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Marco Reus. But on 17 minutes, against the run of play, Darmstadt stunned the 80,000-capacity Signal Iduna Park and sent their 8,000 traveling fans into raptures.
Darmstadt launched a counterattack from their own penalty box. Konstantin Rausch found Sandro Wagner on the left-wing who moved the ball on to Jerome Gondorf. The advanced midfielder switched the ball to the other flank where Heller -- who played in the 3.Liga meeting more than 600 days ago - controlled and then smashed the ball superbly past Bürki.
Tuchel's men couldn't have hoped for a better chance to equalize two minutes later. Reus found space in the channel, cut the ball across goal and Aubameyang somehow cleared the crossbar from about a yard out.
This was as clear-cut as the chances came in the first half as Darmstadt set up compact, deep and dominant around the edge of their own box. It has been a largely efficient tactic for the Lillies who drew at third-place Schalke and beat Bayer Leverkusen on their own patch.
Schuster's side won their first Bundesliga game in 34 years at home on Wednesday, a 2-1 turnaround against Werder Bremen. The Darmstadt coach kept the same side, with the exception of former Mainz defender Junior Diaz who replaced Fabian Holland at left-back. The Costa Rican has Bundesliga experience and played at the World Cup last year.
In a line of six, Darmstadt's stoic defending stymied Dortmund as the first half drew to a frustrating close for the home side. There was little change in the early exchanges with Ilkay Gundogan forced to try his luck unsuccessfully from distance. On 58 minutes, Reus was withdrawn and replaced by on-loan Manchester United forward Adnan Januzaj.
Darmstadt's back-to-wall approach was admirable, yet one could sense the pressure would be just too much. A minute after the substitution, Mkhitaryan secured a loose second ball in the box and brought out a strong save from Mathenia.
Just as Darmstadt began running down the clock, Dortmund struck back. Shinji Kagawa's clever diagonal balls to Matthias Ginter have been brilliantly effective this season, and the Japanese attacker delivered again on 62 minutes. Ginter, converted into a right-back by Tuchel, flicked the ball back across goal and the in-form Aubameyang reacted quickest to level the scores.
And eight minutes later, the wall caved in completely. Januzaj was the creator, slipping the ball into the channel for Aubameyang who then lashed the ball powerfully past Mathenia for his ninth goal in seven matches. The impending encounter between Germany's top-two sides sees Aubameyang go head-to-head with his predecessor at Dortmund: Robert Lewandowski.
Adapting from such a rigid defensive system back into attack proved challenging for Darmstadt. Center-forward Dominik Stroh-Engel entered the fray with about nine minutes left as the visitors threw everything forward in search of a point. And it came: a set-piece fell perfectly to center-back Sulu who lashed past Bürki to send Darmstadt into 10th on 10 points.
Borussia Dortmund, meanwhile, fall four points behind champions Bayern Munich with the two teams meeting next Sunday at the Allianz Arena.