The greatest comebacks in Bundesliga history
Borussia Dortmund's 3-2 defeat to Werder Bremen on Matchday 3 of the 2022/23 season marked the first time in Bundesliga history that a team leading by two goals in the 89th minute lost the game.
Werder scored three times in the final six minutes at the Signal Iduna Park - but how does it compare to some of the Bundesliga's greatest comebacks. bundesliga.com finds out...
Watch: Highlights of Bremen's historic comeback
25 November 2017: Borussia Dortmund 4-4 Schalke
There is quite frankly only one place to start when it comes to Bundesliga fightbacks. In the heat of the Revierderby, Dortmund cruised into a 4-0 lead inside only 25 minutes when Raphael Guerreiro added to efforts from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Mario Götze and a Benjamin Stambouli own goal. Over 80,000 people inside the Signal Iduna Park were lapping it up, laughing even as messages were no doubt being pinged across the Ruhr with bragging rights already claimed, Gelsenkirchen likely deserted.
Half-time came with no further damage; BVB all smiles, the Royal Blues miserable. Their mood lightened somewhat on the hour when Guido Burgstaller got one back. And then Harit grabbed another four minutes later. The Miners were digging themselves out of a very big hole, but they were still a long way off an escape.
Watch: That unforgettable Revierderby
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Light began to emerge with 18 minutes to go when Aubameyang picked up his second yellow card of the game. Burgstaller was then denied by a combination of Roman Weidenfeller and the frame of the goal as Schalke sensed blood. And Daniel Caligiuri brought them to within one with five minutes left of the 90 – to which there would be seven more added.
Veteran defender Naldo had already had a goal chalked off back at 4-0, which now seemed a lifetime away, but he wouldn’t be denied in the 93rd minute as he powered home a header from Yevhen Konoplyanka's cross to snatch a point from a seemingly hopeless situation. Never before had a Revierderby draw felt like such a win – or defeat, if you’re of the black and yellow persuasion.
18 September 1976: Bochum 5-6 Bayern Munich
That was only the second time a team had earned a result in the Bundesliga after trailing by four goals. The first instance happened way back in 1976. A star-studded Bayern Munich side that included club legends Franz Beckenbauer, Gerd Müller, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and Uli Hoeneß were away to Bochum but found themselves 4-0 down after 53 minutes.
That fourth goal finally triggered a reaction from Bayern, as Rummenigge pulled one back just two minutes later. Suddenly the Bavarians were on fire, and goals from Georg Schwarzenbeck, Hoeneß and a brace from Müller in the ensuing 20 minutes put Bayern 5-4 up. Incredibly, Bochum still equalised in the 80th minute before Hoeneß grabbed his second of the game shortly before full-time to secure a famous 6-5 victory for the visitors.
10 December 2017: Cologne 3-4 Freiburg
Everything is more fun in the snow, right? Well, maybe not defending if this game is anything to go by. Seven goals were scored at a white RheinEnergieStadion in late 2017, including three penalties, despite referee Robert Kampka not even being able to find the snow-carpeted penalty spot at one stage.
Serhou Guirassy converted the first for Cologne to put them 2-0 up with only 16 minutes gone, following Lukas Klünter's eighth-minute opener. And it was three before the half-hour mark after Caleb Stanko's own goal. This from a side sitting bottom of the table and still yet to win after 14 matchdays, having just dismissed coach Peter Stöger.
Freiburg boss Christian Streich had already made two of his three changes by the 18th minute. So often the super sub, Nils Petersen had actually started that day and got one back with a thunderous back-post volley shortly before the break.
Janik Haberer suddenly made things interesting again with a header from a corner to make it 3-2 on 65 minutes. Not much more appeared to be happening until the 90th minute, when Nicolas Höfler was taken down in the box. The snow now cleared, Petersen had no trouble finding his mark or the back of the net to level.
Watch: Freiburg’s famous win in the snow
The drama wasn't over yet, however, as Guirassy handled in his own box deep into stoppage time. Petersen again the man, converting for his hat-trick and three points that had earlier seemed implausible.
28 August 2010: Wolfsburg 3-4 Mainz
Freiburg’s feat matched one previously achieved by Mainz seven years earlier. Steve McClaren's Wolfsburg looked to be cruising at home to the 05ers after half an hour following an Edin Dzeko double and an effort from Diego, but the visitors - urged on by then coach Thomas Tuchel - had other ideas.
Mainz struck either side of half-time to set the Wolves on edge, and they continued to push for an equaliser. Substitute Andre Schürrle duly levelled matters in the 58th minute, but Tuchel's charges sensed blood and were not finished there, with Adam Szalai, another of the coach’s substitutions, eventually firing in the winner five minutes before the final whistle.
20 October 1973: Kaiserslautern 7-4 Bayern Munich
Bayern have also been on the receiving end of a match turned on its head, even in their golden era of the 1970s. A Bernd Gersdorff brace and one from Gerd Müller put the Munich giants 3-0 in front after only 36 minutes in Kaiserslautern. The hosts pulled one back just before half-time, but nobody could have predicted what was to come when Müller scored his second of the game to make it 4-1 to Bayern.
Inexplicably, Hoeneß, Beckenbauer & Co. seemed to ease off and the home team equalised by the 73rd minute. Gersdorff's sending off moments later was the beginning of a Bayern implosion that saw Kaiserslautern score three more in the final six minutes to make it six unanswered strikes in half an hour of football and record a famous 7-4 victory.
It was the first and to date only time in Bundesliga history that a team has been down by three goals and still gone on to win by more than one.
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