Fortuna Düsseldorf has temporarily taken third place in the promotion race of the second Bundesliga thanks to “life insurance” Christos Tzolis. The Greek international striker scored the first goal in a 4-0 (1-0) win at bottom side VfL Osnabrück on Friday and added two more. The DFB Cup semi-finalist pushed past Hamburger SV at least until Sunday.
Tzolis converted a cross from Ao Tanaka in the 35th minute of the game. It was the 15th goal of the season for the loanee from Norwich City, who was directly involved in nine of the last twelve Fortuna goals (six goals, three assists). The attacker provided the assist for the goals by Takashi Uchino (59th) and Marlon Mustapha (72nd/according to video evidence). Tanaka scored the final point (88th).
Düsseldorf increased the pressure on Steffen Baumgart’s HSV in the tight “snail race” for relegation. The Hanseatic League has to win against newly promoted Wehen Wiesbaden in order to overtake Fortuna again. For the Osnabrück team, however, the hope of staying in the class is dwindling. The promoted team is already well behind relegation place 16 with eight games to go.
Braunschweig wins in Paderborn
The Rhinelanders started with enthusiasm when coach Daniel Thioune returned to his old place of work, but there were no real chances at first. But then Tanaka served Tzolis, who only had to push in from a few meters. After the break, Uchino quickly took the wind out of the hosts’ sails just three minutes after coming on. Mustapha and Tanaka followed up.
On the other hand, pursuers SC Paderborn failed in the promotion race. At the start of the 26th matchday, the East Westphalia team lost 1:2 (0:0) at home against Braunschweiger Eintracht, who were threatened with relegation. Hasan Kurucay (59th, hand penalty according to video evidence) and Rayan Philippe (80th) scored for the guests, who initially climbed to 16th place in the table and thus increased the pressure on former champions 1. FC Kaiserslautern. Paderborn, on the other hand, could have overtaken Hamburger SV with a win, at least for the time being, and further fueled the promotion battle.
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Braunschweig, coached by Paderborn-born Daniel Scherning, played bravely – but was lucky that SCP attacker Sebastian Klaas missed the post with the best scoring chance of the first half of the game (29th). After the break it went up and down. The guests took advantage of a blackout from Kai Klefisch, who deflected a Braunschweig free kick in his own penalty area with his elbow. It didn’t take long for Paderborn to respond after going behind, but Eintracht, who had previously been winless four times, put everything on one card and was rewarded – but had to tremble again.
