Hertha holds Dortmund 2-2, Bayern moves up in Bundesliga

DORTMUND, Germany (AP) — Borussia Dortmund ran out of energy, and its six-game winning run across all competitions ended, too.

Dortmund was moments away from victory in injury time until it conceded a penalty, which Salomon Kalou converted for Hertha Berlin to draw with the Bundesliga leader 2-2 on Saturday.

Kalou's late spot kick — his second goal — allowed Bayern Munich to cut the gap to Dortmund to two points after nine league games.

Bayern won at Mainz 2-1.

NO APOLOGY NEEDED

The 18-year-old Jadon Sancho scored twice for Dortmund, but the home side was to rue a host of missed chances before Dan-Axel Zagadou conceded the decisive penalty for bringing down Hertha substitute Davie Selke.

"We played very well, and in the second half we had two or three opportunities to make it 3-1," Dortmund coach Lucien Favre said. "Then we made a small mistake."

Favre refused to blame Zagadou for the result.

"Mistakes happen," the former Hertha coach said. "He's 19 years old and has made a lot of progress."

Dortmund scored 26 goals in its previous six games but only three days after sweeping aside Atletico Madrid 4-0 in the Champions League, the turnaround was too soon.

"It feels like two lost points. We have to chalk (the result) up because we didn't take our chances," Mario Goetze said. "We weren't efficient today."

Sancho, who had an early goal ruled out through video assistance, opened the scoring before the half-hour mark when Goetze crossed for a tap-in at the far post.

Dortmund created more opportunities in the first half but a loose pass from Mahmoud Dahoud led to the equalizer. Maximilian Mittelstaedt intercepted the ball, ran forward and played it over to Kalou on the far side. The Ivory Coast striker took it on his chest before guiding it past Roman Buerki for his first league goal of the season.

Sancho grabbed his second before the hour-mark, again a tap-in, after Marco Reus allowed Achraf Hakimi's pass through to the far post.

The home side wasted chances to seal the win, however, the best of them when Raphael Guerreiro counterattacked and failed to beat Hertha goalkeeper Rune Jarstein one on one.

BAYERN ROLLING AGAIN

Thiago Alcantara scored Bayern's winner in Mainz, but coach Niko Kovac didn't enjoy his nerves being tested.

"It was a dirty win that certainly wasn't as comfortable as we would have liked," Kovac said.

Bayern has won three straight across all competitions, after failing to win in four.

OTHERS

Wolfsburg won at promoted Fortuna Duesseldorf 3-0, and Augsburg won at Hannover 2-1.

Hoffenheim routed Stuttgart 4-0 in the late game, leaving the visitors bottom on goal difference from Duesseldorf.