Hertha holds Dortmund 2-2, Bayern moves up to second place

Salomon Kalou scored with an injury-time penalty for Hertha Berlin to hold Borussia Dortmund 2-2, and Bayern Munich closed in on the Bundesliga leader with a 2-1 win at Mainz yesterday.

Kalou’s late spot kick – his second goal – ended Dortmund’s six-game winning run across all competitions and allowed Bayern to cut the gap to two points after nine league games.

Thiago Alcantara scored Bayern’s winner in Mainz as the defending champions moved second.

The 18-year-old Jadon Sancho scored twice for Dortmund, but the home side was to rue a host of missed chances to seal the win before Dan-Axel Zagadou conceded the penalty for bringing down Hertha substitute Davie Selke.

Sancho opened the scoring before the half-hour mark when Mario Goetze crossed for a tapin at the far post.

Dortmund had created more opportunities in the first half but a loose pass from Mahmoud Dahoud led to the equalizer. Maximilian Mittelstaedt intercepted the ball, ran forward and played it over to Kalou on the far side. The Ivory Coast striker took it on his chest before guiding it past Roman Buerki for his first league goal of the season.

Sancho grabbed his second before the hour-mark, again a tapin, after Marco Reus allowed Achraf Hakimi’s pass through to the far post.

The home side wasted chances to seal the win, however.

Raphael Guerreiro should have scored on a counterattack when he failed to beat Hertha goalkeeper Rune Jarstein in their one-on-one, while substitute Jacob Bruun Larsen missed another good chance late on.

Elsewhere, Wolfsburg won 3-0 at promoted Fortuna Duesseldorf and Augsburg won 2-1 at Hannover. (All results, standings on P.51)