Hertha BSC Berlin 2 : 2 Werder Bremen - Hertha waste Schieber's brace

Posted Sunday, August 24, 2014 by PA

Julian Schieber's fourth brace of his Bundesliga career was not enough to earn Hertha Berlin victory as they surrendered a two-goal lead to draw 2-2 with Werder Bremen at the Olympiastadion.

The former Borussia Dortmund forward gave the hosts what seemed to be a comfortable lead with goals in either half, but Assani Lukimya and Franco Di Santo scored two goals in as many minutes to earn Robin Dutt's men a share of the spoils.

A crowd of almost 60,000 left the Olympiastadion disappointed after seeing their side throw away what looked set to be a winning start to the season.

Schieber joined Berlin this summer as a replacement for Adrian Ramos, who moved to Borussia Dortmund.

Berlin seemed to have got good value for that swap, which also saw them earn a fair few million euros as well as the former Stuttgart and Nurnberg striker, who hit the ground running on Saturday.

He opened his Berlin account after just 16 minutes, heading in a deep cross from Roy Beerens at the far post with a deflection helping the ball past Raphael Wolf.

It was his first goal in the Bundesliga since April 2013.

His second followed just after the break with the floodgates now appearing to open. He had the simplest of tap-ins after Lukimya deflected a cross over his own goalkeeper to the predatory Schieber.

It all seemed to be going according to plan for Hertha, but Bremen responded well and were right back in the game when Lukimya provided another deflection, this time a winning one to a free-kick.

The ball hit him high up on his back, although he will claim it was an intentional deflection which brought Bremen back to within a goal of their hosts.

A quick counter-attack moments later then saw the comeback complete with Di Santo heading the ball in after Thomas Kraft's initial save looped up to him just a yard from goal.

It was Berlin's turn to respond, and they did so with John Heitinga feeling he had marked his debut with a goal, but the referee stopped play for a foul by the Dutchman, much to the home fans' disillusionment as they stomached a draw which would have felt more like defeat.