BERLIN: Borussia Dortmund stumbled to a goalless draw at Union Berlin on Saturday, with striker Konstantinos Karetsas suffering an injury on his comeback, but the point put them provisionally top of the Bundesliga table.
The Ruhr valley club, who lost 1-0 in the Champions League at Bodo/Glimt on Wednesday and have now failed to win any of their last three matches across all competitions, lacked spark in the first half, before upping their level after the break.
They then saw Karetsas, who had come on in the 62nd minute, go off with an ankle injury just eight minutes later. He had come back after collapsing in September due to what the club said were ‘circulatory problems’.
“Let’s hope it’s not too serious. He’s not feeling great right now,” Dortmund sporting director Ole Book told reporters.
The visitors had to settle for a second consecutive league draw that lifted them to top spot on 14 points.
Serhou Guirassy had a golden chance to snatch all three points for his side at the end of a match of few opportunities, but headed just wide with 11 minutes remaining to cap a poor game up front for the Dortmund striker.
“We simply have to get better in attack. Right now, it’s just not good enough,” Dortmund’s Waldemar Anton told Sky.
It was the first draw between the two sides in their history, with each of their previous 16 clashes in all competitions producing a winner.
Meanwhile, VfB Stuttgart were handed a blow just days out from Tuesday’s home Champions League clash with Atletico Madrid, going down 1-0 at Hamburg after an 88th-minute Miro Muheim goal.
Stuttgart are languishing in 13th in the Bundesliga with two wins and four defeats but have impressed in Europe this season to sit in fourth spot in the 36-team Champions League table after two matches.
Elsewhere, promoted Elversberg continued their impressive debut season in the top flight, winning 4-3 at home to Augsburg.
Lukas Petkov, Lasse Guenther, Maximilian Rohr and Frederik Schmahl got on the scoresheet as Elversberg, from the smallest town to ever host a Bundesliga side, climbed to sixth in the table.
Niclas Fuellkrug scored for the fifth straight Bundesliga match as his brace helped Werder Bremen come from two goals down to draw 2-2 at home against Paderborn.
The Germany striker returned to Bremen on loan after an unhappy spell at West Ham but now has seven goals in seven games in all competitions.
A first-half goal for Phillip Tietz was enough for Mainz to win 1-0 at Schalke and climb to fifth in the standings.
Published in Dawn, October 18th, 2026
