Borussia Dortmund 3-2 Werder Bremen. A five-goal contest at the Signal Iduna Park that looked settled inside 17 minutes, only for Werder Bremen to claw their way back through a second-half penalty and a Niclas Füllkrug goal, before Marcel Sabitzer settled it deep in stoppage time. For anyone weighing up a Borussia Dortmund vs Werder Bremen prediction ahead of kickoff, the game delivered exactly the kind of open, error-strewn contest the recent form of both sides suggested.
Dortmund could hardly have started better. Serhou Guirassy opened the scoring on 6 minutes, and Carney Chukwuemeka doubled the lead on 17, putting the hosts two goals clear before the half-hour mark. Bremen's response in the first period was limited to a 24th-minute yellow card for Amos Pieper, and the visitors went into the interval with work to do.
The second half changed shape quickly. Joey Veerman was booked on 49 minutes, and Arthur Augusto de Matos Soares followed him into the book on 57. Two minutes later Bremen made a quadruple change, introducing Marco Grüll, Eren Dinkci, Cédric Itten and Dariusz Stalmach. The impact was almost immediate: Niclas Füllkrug converted a penalty on 65 minutes after Julian Ryerson was booked, then struck again on 68 to level the match at 2-2. Dortmund responded on 71 minutes with a triple substitution of their own, withdrawing Veerman, Chukwuemeka and Ryerson, and later replaced Guirassy on 84.
With the game drifting toward a draw, Sabitzer found the winner in the third minute of stoppage time, restoring Dortmund's lead at the death. The result hinged on that four-minute Bremen burst around the hour, which turned a controlled Dortmund display into a genuine contest; the hosts' bench reshuffle steadied things before Sabitzer's late intervention. H2H stats between these clubs have rarely produced quiet afternoons, and this one added another chapter.
