Holstein Kiel achieved its first win of the year and secured a promotion place. With a goal from former Schalke player Steven Skrzybski (55th minute), the autumn champions won 1-0 (0-0) against FC Schalke 04 on Sunday and pushed Hamburger SV back out of second place in the table. The Kiel team went into the winter break as leaders, but only won one point in the first three games of the second half of the season. Schalke 04 is in 14th place in the table. The lead over the relegation place is now only two points.
In front of 15,000 spectators in the sold-out Holstein Stadium, Shuto Machino (2nd) and Joshua Mees (7th) could have given Kiel the lead in the opening minutes. The promotion candidate dominated the first division relegated team even without six injured, suspended or sick regular players.
The disappointing Schalke were only threatened once by Englishman Derry Murkin in the 24th minute. Kiel, on the other hand, missed further good opportunities through Mees (54th/83rd), Machino (58th) and Skrzybski (76th). The 31-year-old Skrzybski did not celebrate his important winning goal because he has been a Schalke fan since he was a child and also played for the “Royal Blues” from 2018 to 2021.
Osnabrück and Rostock without goals
VfL Osnabrück and Hansa Rostock are heading for relegation. The goalless draw between the northern teams on Sunday didn’t help either team. The situation is becoming increasingly hopeless, especially for the hosts. Although the promoted team remained unbeaten for the third time in a row, they are already nine points behind the relegation place.
As second to last, Hansa is still level on points with 1. FC Kaiserslautern in 16th place, but was in very weak shape in Osnabrück. In front of 15,741 spectators in the sold-out stadium at Bremer Brücke, the guests could be happy about the one point.
Osnabrück was the team that dominated the game in the first half. However, VfL lacked the means to seriously endanger the deep Hansa defense. CJ Conteh missed the best chance after a corner in the 9th minute. In return, Junior Brumado should have given Rostock the lead, but he didn’t hit the empty goal from a few meters while falling. It was Rostock’s only chance in the entire game.
Even after the break, the hosts were the better team. Hansa could thank goalkeeper Markus Kolke for not falling behind. The visiting goalkeeper made outstanding saves from two headers from Conteh (52′) and Maxwell Gyamfi (54′). In the final phase, Osnabrück pushed for the winning goal, but missed a number of good chances.
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Hertha BSC achieved its first league win this year. Coach Pal Dardai’s team won 2-1 (1-0) at SpVgg Greuther Fürth. In front of 13,459 spectators, Marc Oliver Kempf gave Berlin the lead twice in a hectic game (34th and 63rd minute). Branimir Hrgota (56th) scored for the hosts to equalize. With 29 points, Hertha is now eight points behind third place.
In addition to his injured sons Bence and Marton, Agustin Rogel and the suspended captain Toni Leistner, coach Dardai was also missing goal scorer Haris Tabakovic (knee problems), Linus Gechter and Smail Prevljak (gastrointestinal infection). Fabian Reese was in the starting line-up for the first time after his corona infection.
Despite the personnel problems, the guests from the capital appeared more aggressive in the course of the first half. Kempf headed the deserved lead after a corner from Palko Dardai. Hrgota’s beautiful shot to equalize didn’t let Hertha despair either. Kempf was successful again – this time after a free kick taken by Jonjoe Kenny. The defender was injured and had to be substituted.
The game then had to be interrupted due to fan protests, but Hertha then successfully defended itself against the equalizer again. In the last two minutes they were also outnumbered because Florian Niederlechner was sent off with a yellow-red card.
