A last-minute equaliser from Leandro Putaro earned Arminia Bielefeld a point against Eintracht Braunschweig in the 2. Bundesliga.
Despite Tom Schütz giving the hosts the lead, the Lions had looked set to lay the ghosts of their 6-0 defeat in Bielefeld last May to rest after Suleiman Abdullahi and Jan Hochscheidt put them ahead in the second half.
Instead Putaro denied them an all-too-rare win this season, and they had to settle for a ninth draw in 14 league matches.
Braunschweig behind early on site of last season’s nightmare
The last time these two teams had met, Bielefeld had all but ended Braunschweig’s hopes of promotion, whilst fuelling their own 2. Bundesliga survival, with an incredible 6-0 victory as the since-departed Reinhold Yabo scored a hat-trick. Henri Weigelt, Florian Dick, Manuel Prietel and Fabian Klos all came in from Bielefeld’s 1-1 draw against Erzgebirge Aue before the international break. Robin Becker and Hochscheidt started for injury-hit Braunschweig.
Kenau Staude also scored in May, and he was keen to heap more misery on Braunschweig here although two early shots weren’t threatening Jasmin Fejzic’s goal. The same can’t be said about Schütz’s free-kick though. An awkward jump from Abdullahi in the wall created the gap for the ball to pass through, with Fejzic beaten at the near post.
If Abdullahi felt responsible for the goal then he certainly went the right way about quickly equalising. He was the away side’s main attacking threat in the first half, with two good chances saved by Stefan Ortega.
Bielefeld could have made it two though. A Florian Hartherz cross found Fabian Klos on the far side off the box, he got around an onrushing Fejzic, however Steve Breitkreuz denied him with an interception sliding in. After that not much else of significance happened before the half-time break, although Schütz had another free-kick opportunity before it, only this time the wall did its job.
Putaro denies Braunschweig much-needed win
Braunschweig started the second half brightly, with a headed chance for Abdullahi put over the bar by Ortega, who also turned wide a curving strike from Salim Khelifi. From the Hochscheidt corner resulting from that though, Breitkreuz headed it down towards Abdullahi, who finally got the reward for his persistence as he scored on the half-volley.
The Lions had their tails up, with Khelifi close to making it 2-1 as he struck just wide of the post. Four minutes later and they did take the lead. A Bielefeld defender headed the ball straight to Ken Reichel, and he went over the top to seek out Hochscheidt, who struck past Ortega, with the goalkeeper’s touch not enough to stop it going in.
Bielefeld struggled to get back into the game. Staude had a shot saved by Fejzic, whilst Andreas Voglsammer struck well over before a poor first touch saw a great chance pass him by in the middle of the box. As time was running out, Christoph Hemlein saw two headers saved by the Braunschweig keeper.
In the 90th minute though, they had a corner, taken by Dick. It was headed down by Klos, falling to the feet of Putaro, introduced from the bench 12 minutes earlier. He struck it in through the legs of Fejzic, who didn’t have much time to react, and just as Braunschweig looked set to rest the ghosts of the defeat here in May, they instead had to settle for a ninth draw in 14 games this season.