Good news for FC Schalke 04, Werder Bremen and Co.: Darmstadt 98 may have made a decisive mistake in the promotion thriller of the 2nd Bundesliga.
The lilies lost 1:2 (0:2) at Fortuna Düsseldorf on the penultimate match day after a completely sleepy start. The second in the table can thus be overtaken by both Werder Bremen and Hamburger SV in the course of the weekend.
“Most of the boys cry because they want a dream. We are disappointed because we are actually playing an outstanding season,” said Darmstadt coach Torsten Lieberknecht on “Sky”: “But we remain professional and will try again against Paderborn to knock everything out.”
Emmanuel Iyoha (3rd) and Matthias Zimmermann (10th) caused long faces at Darmstadt with their goals early on, Tobias Kempe (60th) only managed to catch up with a penalty kick. After red against Fortuna’s Daniel Ginczek (89th) and yellow-red against Darmstadt’s Klaus Gjasula (89th), both teams ended the game with only ten men.
Fortuna remained undefeated in the twelfth game under coach Daniel Thioune.
FC Schalke 04 can make promotion perfect
It is also clear that table leaders FC Schalke 04 can make their return to the top flight perfect with a home win against St. Pauli on Saturday.
In front of 31,622 spectators, Fortuna got off to a dream start: 24-year-old Iyoha, who has been playing for the red-whites since 2011, scored his first goal for the club from his hometown with a left-footed shot. A little later, Zimmermann even raised after nice preliminary work from Felix Klaus.
The double hit caught Darmstadt cold, Torsten Lieberknecht’s team seemed completely unsettled and were lucky to be only two goals behind at the break. After the change of sides, Darmstadt started to catch up: First Marvin Mehlem missed the great opportunity to connect, then Kempe scored from the point – but it was no longer enough for a draw.
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