Fortuna Düsseldorf has taken the lead in the second Bundesliga, at least for the time being. Daniel Thioune’s team won 4-1 (2-0) at Eintracht Braunschweig on Friday evening, spoiling the debut of new Braunschweig coach Marc Pfitzner. Last Monday, the 39-year-old took over as an interim successor to the released Jens Härtel at the bottom of the table, which has now had eight wins in a row.
The big cheers in the stadium for the long-standing Braunschweig player legend Pfitzner quickly fell silent. Thanks to goals from Christos Tzolis (12th minute) and Vincent Vermeij (14th), Fortuna led 2-0 after just a quarter of an hour. Florian Krüger brought Eintracht closer again in the 59th minute. Just five minutes later, Jamil Siebert (64th) made it 1:3 again. Ao Tanaka (90+8) added a fourth goal in added time.
Pfitzner put ten of Braunschweig’s eleven new signings on the bench or in the stands this season. In front of 19,333 spectators, Eintracht played much more courageously under the new coach. However, the major weaknesses of the Härtel period could not be remedied in a few days. Eintracht is too unimaginative at the front and too vulnerable at the back. The Düsseldorfers are different. Three more goals from Vermej (36th), Tzolis (57th) and Shinta Appelkamp (67th) were disallowed due to offside or foul play. Fortuna was much more relaxed and dangerous for 90 minutes.
Meanwhile, the Greuther Fürth game association also demonstrated its home strength against VfL Osnabrück. The dominant Franconians won 4-0 (1-0) on Friday evening and thus scored 13 of their 15 points in Ronhof at home. The goals were scored by Julian Green (45th minute), Armindo Sieb (47th) as well as Dickson Abiama (74th) and Tim Lemperle (75th) with a double strike. While the Fürth team jumped to seventh place at the start of the eleventh matchday, newly promoted Osnabrück remained in a relegation zone.
Published/Updated: Published/Updated: Published/Updated: Recommendations: 5
The 9,978 spectators experienced a tough first half with only two highlights. First, Fürth’s captain Branimir Hrgota failed with a penalty after a foul on Simon Asta by Osnabrück goalkeeper Lennart Grill. Hrgota had already missed a penalty in the 2-0 defeat against Hamburger SV a week ago. The footballing highlight was the free kick converted by the American Green shortly before the half-time whistle. The 2-0 result thanks to an unstoppably deflected shot from Sieb immediately after the restart was the early preliminary decision. Practically nothing came offensively from Osnabrück. And the defense also proved to be unsuitable for the second division when conceding goals three and four.
