Christoph Kramer lobbed the ball into his own net from 45 metres to score an astonishing own goal which gave Borussia Dortmund a 1-0 home win over Borussia Moenchenglabach and ended their run of five successive defeats on Sunday.
Kramer’s misfortune also gave his own team their first defeat in 19 matches in all competitions this season and lifted Dortmund, Bundesliga runners-up for the last two seasons, off the bottom of the table.
Dortmund had thrown everything at Gladbach and seemed to be running out of options until Kramer, substituted in the World Cup final against Argentina after a clash of heads, did their job for them in the 58th minute.
Gladbach were calmly playing the ball around in their own half when it was passed to Kramer and he over-hit an attempted lob back to goalkeeper Yann Sommer, who watched it sail over his head into the net. Dortmund should have been out of sight by then after outplaying third-placed Gladbach
Marco Reus broke down left and fired across the face of the goal in the second minute and then saw his shot tipped onto the post by Sommer.
Lukasz Piszczek mis-cued wildly after being set free by Henrikh Mkhitaryan on the right and the Armenian also fired over from a similar position after Sven Bender opened up the Gladbach defence.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang had a goal disallowed and saw a dipping free kick tipped over the bar by Sommer.
After Kramer’s goal, Reus rattled the underside of the crossbar from long-range while Kevin Grosskreutz and Aubameyang both missed stoppage-time chances for a second goal.
Dortmund’s win lifted them to 15th, outside the relegation places, with ten points, ahead of Werder Bremen on goal difference. Gladbach are third with 20 points.
VfL Wolfsburg stayed second after beating lowly Hamburg SV 2-0 with goals from Ivica Olic and Aaron Hunt, both set up by Kevin de Bruyne.
The Belgian volleyed Hunt’s corner towards goal and Croatia veteran Olic instinctively diverted the ball beyond Jaroslav Drobny from close range.
