Friday's Bundesliga match was a one-sided display of Dortmund attacking against the beleaguered guests Stuttgart, notable only for its lack of goals - until the last 20 minutes.

Dortmundcomfortably led 2-0 after 70 minutes' play, in clear control, when all hell broke loose. Stuttgart striker Vedad Ibisevic narrowed the gap to 2-1 with a tidy shot on 71 minutes. Julian Schieber leveled the score after a snaking run on 77 minutes, and then put Stuttgart ahead on 79.

Defender Mats Hummels, who had brilliantly assisted Dortmund's second goal, responded almost immediately – blasting the ball home from the edge of the box. Five minutes thereafter, with three left on the clock, substitute Ivan Perisic restored Dortmund's lead with a neat volley from a Marcel Schmelzer corner.

Schieber missed a sitter early, then scored two screamers late

Having seemingly recovered the game, the Dortmund back line fell to pieces in stoppage time, allowing Christian Gentner to tie the game at 4-4 with a goal that was softer than a year-old pear.

Dortmundcoach Jürgen Klopp tried to take the positives from the game, talking about a "point gained," but should Bayern Munich succeed in closing the gap to the leaders, fans at Signal Iduna Park are more likely to talk about two points that slipped away.

Making chances, without taking them

While the result delighted neutrals, it probably should have been a far more boring affair. The first half was also awash with 18 goal-scoring opportunities; only two of them falling to Stuttgart. Nevertheless, Dortmund had only managed to convert their complete dominance into a 1-0 half-time lead.

Veteran keeper Weidenfeller must know his side deserved three points

Shinji Kagawa provided that opening goal after about half an hour, with Polish winger Jakub Blaszczykowski doubling the Dortmund early in the second half. Both players had chances for more goals in the opening hour, with several of their teammates also denied either by Stuttgart keeper Sven Ulreich or captain Georg Niedermeier - who headed two goal-bound shots off the line in the course of the match.

Klopp's Dortmund side travels to Wolfsburg for a tricky league match next weekend. That fixture is effectively the warm-up for a crucial 11-day period in which they face Bayern Munich, Schalke and then Borussia Mönchengladbach - the three other front-runners in the Bundesliga.

Coming up later in the match-day…

Bayern Munich can close the gap at the top of the table to three points if they win in Nuremberg on Saturday afternoon. Augsburg host Cologne and Hamburg travel to Kaiserslautern for a pair of relegation scraps, European hopefuls Werder Bremen are at home against Mainz, while Bayer Leverkusen entertain struggling Freiburg.

On Saturday evening, freefalling Hertha Berlin play a home game against on-form Wolfsburg, while the two other front-runners are on the road in Sunday's matches. Gladbach head north for a tough tie with Hanover, Schalke are motoring down the Rhein to Sinsheim to face Hoffenheim.

Author: Mark Hallam

Editor: Stuart Tiffen