Dortmund suffer defeat as Haaland draws blank
BERLIN: Borussia Dortmund crashed to a 2-0 defeat at Augsburg on Saturday as Norway striker Erling Braut Haaland failed to rescue the visitors on his return to Bavaria, where he wrote Bundesliga history in January.
Last season’s runners-up Dortmund blew the chance to build on their impressive 3-0 win over Borussia Moenchengladbach last Saturday when Haaland scored twice in an electric display on the opening weekend of the season.
The 20-year-old has netted 18 goals in 21 games this year for Dortmund and wrote himself into Bundesliga history in January when he became the first player to score a hat-trick off the bench on his German league debut.
Haaland’s three goals in 20 minutes sparked a 5-3 fightback win.
However, the Norwegian hotshot drew a blank on his return to Augsburg’s WWK-Arena with just one clear shot on goal as centreback Felix Uduokhai powered home a header for the hosts from a free-kick on 40 minutes.
Augsburg’s former Schalke playmaker Daniel Caligiuri added to Dortmund’s misery by holding off Thomas Meunier to fire home the hosts’ second on 54 minutes.
Haaland was booked with a half an hour gone after some pushing and shoving with Augsburg defender Jeffrey Gouweleeuw, who was also shown a yellow card.
Dortmund had three times as many shots on goal and dominated with 80 percent possession, which left their Swiss coach Lucian Favre to admit, “we are very disappointed, it’s hard to accept this defeat”.
“We have much to do,” admitted Favre, with one eye on Wednesday’s German Super Cup match against Bayern in Munich.
“We almost completely dominated the game, we started well, but we weren’t precise enough and were too hasty in our play.
“Augsburg defended well, we need to be more patient and play more down the flanks.”
Schalke coach David Wagner is on the verge of being dismissed with his side now 18 games without a win after slumping to a 3-0 defeat at home by Werder Bremen, whose striker Niclas Fuellkrug claimed a hat-trick.
Schalke were hammered 8-0 by Bayern last weekend and Bremen profited from some equally woeful defending.
Earlier RB Leipzig were held to a 1-1 draw at Bayer Leverkusen as Emil Forsberg’s superb opening goal for the Champions League semi-finalists was cancelled out by a long-range effort from Leverkusen’s Kerem Demirbay.
RESULTS
Borussia Moenchengladbach 1 (Thuram 56) Union Berlin (Schlotterbeck 79); Bayer Leverkusen 1 (Demirbay 20) RB Leipzig 1 (Forsberg 14); Mainz 05 1 (Quaison 13) VfB Stuttgart 4 (Wamangituka 45, Didavi 61, Klimowicz 80, Kalajdzic 86); Augsburg 2 (Uduokhai 40, Caligiuri 54) Borussia Dortmund 0; Arminia Bielefeld 1 (Edmundsson 78) Cologne 0; Schalke 04 1 (Uth 90+3) Werder Bremen 3 (Fuellkrug 22, 37, 60-pen)