The evening at Signal Iduna Park had the shape of a routine Bundesliga result until the 88th minute. Daniel Svensson struck in the 80th and Nico Schlotterbeck added a second five minutes later, after a long evening in which Werder goalkeeper Karl Hein had kept his side alive with seven saves.

Then Ludovit Reis pulled one back for Bremen, and in the second minute of stoppage time Niclas Füllkrug, the former Dortmund striker who reached the 2024 Champions League final with BVB, met a Marco Grüll free-kick with a header to equalise.

Kovac did not reach for excuses.

“We dominated the opponent for 88 minutes in such a way that we had them in the corner. We didn’t manage to finish the last eight minutes as we should have. We have to blame ourselves for that,” he told reporters after the final whistle.

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The head coach called it a two-point loss rather than a point gained.

“We dropped two points. Hopefully, we will learn our lessons from the last eight minutes.”

Pure disappointment, straight from the top

Managing director Lars Ricken did not try to soften the verdict either.

“It’s pure disappointment,” he said.

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He added, however, that the opening weeks still carried something worth keeping: “As disappointed as we are now, we can also be confident with our start in the league.”

The draw ended a six-match unbeaten run across all competitions and denied Dortmund the chance of matching the club’s best start to a Bundesliga season. For Bremen, it was a fourth unbeaten match in a row, and the equaliser came from a player they had once sold to Dortmund.

‘The hunted’ narrative, tested in eight minutes

Hours before kick-off, Kovac had told Bundesliga.com that his league leaders were the team being chased.

“We are the hunted. And that means we really have to continue working consistently well.”

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Eight minutes of defending stood between that message and a fifth straight league win. Dortmund did not get through them.

The damage was limited at the top. Dortmund remain first with 13 points from five matches, two clear of Bayern Munich on 11.

Little time to work on the finish

Dortmund have little time to work on the finish. The squad travels to the Aspmyra Stadion to face FK Bodø/Glimt in the Champions League on Wednesday, 14 October, before travelling to Munich to face Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena on Saturday, 31 October.

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