Thanks to captain Marco Reus, Borussia Dortmund seized the opportunity and made the championship race in the Bundesliga exciting again.
19 hours after the surprising leap forward by the 1: 2 defeat of league leaders FC Bayern Munich at FC Augsburg, Dortmund defeated VfB Stuttgart with difficulty 2: 1 (0: 0) and advanced - two weeks before the league summit in their own stadium - up to one meter on the serial master.
Dortmund - Reus scored the winning goal five minutes before the end.
Against the Swabians, who celebrated a furious 5-1 win in Dortmund last year, Dortmund struggled for a long time without star striker Erling Haaland before his replacement Donyell Malen redeemed them with his first Bundesliga goal (56th).
Roberto Massimo (63.) equalized.
The severely weakened Swabians slipped despite their brave performance on the relegation place - ousted by Bayern defeated Augsburg.
BVB coach Marco Rose had said before the game that he had "noticed" Bayern's defeat.
He only changed his starting line-up compared to the 1: 2 in Leipzig in one position: Raphael Guerreiro was in the starting line-up after a seven-week injury break in front of 57,900 spectators instead of the permitted 67,000.
Dortmund almost had a lightning start, but Reus put a free kick from 22 meters just next to the post (7th).
After twelve minutes, the 30-million-man Malen, who represents Haaland, who is missing due to problems in the hip flexor, approached the goal for the first time;
but after a cross from Julian Brandt he headed past.
But VfB's first attack was also dangerous, after a cross from Borna Sosa, Philipp Förster slipped past the ball (15th).
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Dortmund fails in the Bayern hunt in Leipzig
In general, the Swabians held against it with a lot of bite and quickly found their way into the game after the hosts' initial offensive. BVB acted awkwardly and with no target player Haaland too often with high balls. After Malen's header, there was no shot on goal for 24 minutes before Thorgan Hazard tried it from 20 meters (37th). In return, Stuttgart had the best chance of the first half when Tanguy Coulibaly failed because of the brilliantly reacting Gregor Kobel.
Even after the break, the hosts found it difficult at first, and the redeeming opening goal was more of a coincidence than a successful combination.
Malen's shot from 20 meters would hardly have found its way into the goal if Hiroki Ito had not deflected it.
And instead of gaining security, only six minutes later the Westphalia conceded 1-1 after Manuel Akanji lost the ball.
The otherwise good Swiss hit the bar shortly afterwards (67th).
The Dortmund winning goal resulted from a corner kick from Stuttgart.
The Reus, who until then only appeared in standards, initiated the attack himself, Hazard failed to Florian Müller and Reus pushed the ball over the line.
dpa