For nearly an hour the afternoon belonged entirely to TSG Hoffenheim. Then, in the space of five furious minutes, Borussia Dortmund tore it away from them, and by the end a game that had promised the hosts their first points of the season instead left them staring at another defeat. A 3-2 win, sealed by an Albian Hajdari own goal four minutes from time, was equal parts theft and reward for the visitors' refusal to accept the story that was being written against them.

This was a comeback assembled at speed and finished with cold precision. Hoffenheim had done everything asked of them across the opening hour, taking a two-goal lead that felt like it might finally break their winless start. But Dortmund, unbeaten and hungry near the summit of the Bundesliga, needed only a foothold to rediscover their menace. Serhou Guirassy provided it, and the rest arrived in a rush that the home side never managed to slow.

By full time the visitors had climbed to the numbers that flatter their turbulent afternoon: three goals, six points, second in the table. For Hoffenheim, it was cruelty layered on top of frustration, a match led for so long and lost so late.

Hosts seize control

Hoffenheim's opening had been patient rather than spectacular, and their reward arrived at the most demoralising moment for any opponent. On the stroke of half-time, Vladimír Coufal slipped the ball to Leon Avdullahu on the edge of the box, and the midfielder took a touch before curling a right-footed strike into the bottom-left corner. The timing of it, right on 45 minutes, sent the PreZero Arena into the interval convinced this might be their day.

Nine minutes into the second half, the belief hardened into something close to certainty. Adam Daghim burst forward on a fast break and picked out Tim Lemperle in the centre of the box, and the finish was emphatic, a right-footed shot lashed into the top-left corner. Two goals to the good, the home crowd roaring, Hoffenheim looked to have wrestled the game entirely on to their own terms.

It was, on the balance of that first hour, no more than they deserved. They had been sharper in transition, braver on the ball, and more clinical when the openings came. The only concern, barely voiced amid the celebrations, was that a two-goal lead against a side of Dortmund's quality can vanish faster than it is built.

Guirassy lights the fuse

That warning was answered within seven minutes. On the hour, Waldemar Anton delivered into the box and Guirassy did what elite centre-forwards do, guiding a right-footed finish straight through the centre of the goal to halve the deficit. Suddenly the arena's noise carried a nervous edge, and Dortmund sensed that the afternoon had shifted beneath everyone's feet.

The equaliser came at breathtaking pace. Barely five minutes after his own goal, Guirassy turned provider, releasing Fábio Silva on the left side of the box, and the forward steered a left-footed shot into the bottom-right corner. From 2-0 down and seemingly beaten, the visitors were level and rampant, the momentum swung so violently that Hoffenheim looked stunned into passivity.

There was a lesson in the sequence about the difference between the sides. Hoffenheim had earned their lead through fine moments; Dortmund manufactured their revival through relentless, structured pressure and the ruthlessness of players who expect to score. Once the first went in, the second felt not merely possible but inevitable.

The cruel finish

The closing stages were played out under the shadow of a home side that knew what was coming. Dortmund pressed, probed and squeezed, and Hoffenheim retreated deeper, their earlier verve replaced by anxious defending. The decisive blow, when it came in the 86th minute, was as painful as it was fitting: Albian Hajdari turned the ball into his own net, and a comeback that had already been remarkable was completed with a moment of genuine anguish for the hosts.

For Dortmund it was a third victory from three, six goals scored across their fixtures and a place at second in the table that reflects a side capable of winning even when they are second best for long stretches. This was not a performance to frame, but it was the kind of result that defines promising seasons, the ability to drag points from matches that appear lost.

There is no such comfort for Hoffenheim, who remain rooted in 16th on zero points, two defeats from two and now the owners of a scoreline that will sting for days. Four goals scored and six conceded tells of a team not short of attacking intent but perilously fragile once the pressure builds.

What comes next

The two clubs walk away from the PreZero Arena in opposite emotional states, bound together only by the ninety minutes they shared. Dortmund carry the swagger of a team who believe they can always find a way, a dangerous thing to hand to a squad already among the Bundesliga's early front-runners. The finishing of Guirassy and Silva, and the character of the recovery, will reassure everyone connected with the club.

Hoffenheim's task is more urgent and more searching. To lead by two goals and lose is one thing; to do so while conceding three times in twenty-five minutes speaks to problems of concentration and nerve that must be addressed before they harden into a pattern. The performance had merit for an hour, but merit does not appear on the table, and points are what they desperately lack.

For now the numbers stand stark and unforgiving. Dortmund second and unbeaten, Hoffenheim 16th and pointless, separated by six points and, on this evidence, by the composure to see a lead through to the whistle. That was the difference at the PreZero, and it was the difference that mattered.