Nothing separated Hertha BSC and Borussia Dortmund in the capital of Germany as the two sides remained in third and second place respectively while continuing their respective streaks.
A half with only a couple of chances
In just the second minute of the match, the Greek center back Sokratis Papastahopoulos tried an audacious attempt from near the halfway line but his attempt did miss the target by some margin. Then, in a four minute span, Hertha and Dortmund exchanged a couple of shots that were either saved or came close to hitting the target. The first one came off the foot of Vladimir Darida and it was stopped well by Roman Bürki. The visitors effort came off the right foot of Ilkay Gündogan and missed wide to the right.
Following a corner in the 21st minute, John Anthony Brooks met Darida's delivery off of a corner, although the ensuing effort was quite poor and was hit over the top of the crossbar. Two minutes later, Jens Hegeler hit a header that forced Bürki to make a diving save to keep it from finding the bottom left corner of the goal.
The final two chances in the opening half of the match came in the 32nd and 34th minute of the match. Mats Hummels thought he should have found the back of the net off of a corner but Rune Jarstein used his fine reflexes to dive down low and keep it from getting past him. Hertha's Salomon Kalou had his first look at goal only to see his shot get stopped with ease, having it fall into the hands of the Dortmund goalkeeper.
Defense's hold strong to share a point
Borussia Dortmund came out of the gates very quickly and had two attempts at goal in the 49th minute. Star men Marco Reus and Henrikh Mkhitaryan both went close with the former not quite getting enough curl on his shot and the latter missing the left post from quite a ways away from goal.
There was not another shot in the match for another 12 minutes when Hegeler nodded a wonderful Marvin Plattenhardt's cross straight at Bürki in a chance that might have been a goal had he just got a bit of direction on the attempt. Nine minutes later, Hertha went on the counter, something they love to do, and Darida found enough space to unleash a shot that was close to the target, although it did wind up going wide of the left post.
Mkhitaryan had a second shot in this match, also coming in the 70th minute and had a clear look at goal from the middle of the box and somehow, missed the target. The final two chances from either club came in the 78th and 81st minute, with the hosts firing first via a shot from Kalou that came outside of the box before Adrián Ramos could not find his shooting touch from inside the area.
In the end, the result seemed just about right. Neither side really found that creative spark in the final third of the pitch and both defenses were strong and cleaned up any potential danger that came their way.