Dortmund stunned by late St Pauli comeback
Borussia Dortmund let a two-goal advantage slip late on as it drew 3-3 against St Pauli in the opening game of its Bundesliga season.
Dortmund had Filippo Mane sent off five minutes from time, with goals from Danel Sinani and Eric Smith seeing St Pauli completing the turnaround at Millerntor-Stadion.
Niko Kovac's side took the lead in the 34th minute through Serhou Guirassy's header, but the striker missed a penalty five minutes later which would have doubled Dortmund's advantage.
The hosts took full advantage of that reprieve, restoring parity five minutes after the break thanks to Andreas Hountondji, but Dortmund soon got back in front.
Waldemar Anton's deflected strike picked out the bottom right corner, before Julian Brandt took down Pascal Gross's ball over the top to give his team a two-goal cushion.
But St Pauli was awarded a spot-kick after Abdoulie Ceesay was fouled by Mane, who was handed a straight red card, with Sinani tucking away the resulting spot-kick.
However, there was to be more late drama, with St Pauli captain Smith finding the bottom-left corner with a brilliant drive to snatch a share of the spoils.
"We knew we had to work very hard to get anything out of this game," Dortmund coach Kovac said.
"We did not succeed in matching our opponents' physical game. We played too slowly. We did not play deep. They were very, very disciplined and it did not make things easy for us.
"But when you lead 3-1, then you cannot play a 3-3 even against this very good St Pauli team. We only managed to get one point and as Dortmund, you cannot be satisfied with this."
