Goalkeeper Florian Stritzel looked down in embarrassment after the final whistle, while his Wiesbaden teammate Robin Heußer fell to the grass in disappointment. There was great anger and incomprehension in the Hessians’ camp about their own actions. Despite a 2-0 lead, the Hessians lost their second division home game against Greuther Fürth 3:5 on Sunday.
“That was football in the greatest perversion,” said captain Sascha Mockenhaupt. “Today, three goals are not enough to take anything away.” After their seventh game without a win in a row, the Hessians are in relegation place 16 with three game days before the end of the round.
Late in the evening, the club announced that coach Markus Kauczinski would be released with immediate effect. “In the fight to stay in the league, we have come to the conclusion that we will not achieve our goals in this constellation and that the team needs new impetus for the final games,” managing director Nico Schäfer was quoted as saying in a statement. “It was not an easy decision to part ways with our promotion coach.”
At the beginning of the working day, which ended so unpleasantly, things were still going in the right direction for Wiesbaden. A few seconds before kick-off, Ivan Prtajin briefly hugged his teammate Nikolas Agrafiotis. The two Wiesbaden strikers were in the starting lineup together for the first time and moved close together in the center circle.
A sign to leave. Which shortly afterwards found its first positive result. Fürth’s goalkeeper Jonas Urbig was powerless against the power of striker Prtajin, who made it 1-0 in the third minute. It was the Croatian’s 13th goal of the season, who is the measure of all things for the Hessians in terms of penetration. But on Sunday he found an imitator in his own ranks: his attack partner Agrafiotis. The Dutchman increased the score to 2-0 after 18 minutes of play. He skillfully took advantage of a pass error by the Fürth goalkeeper.
Accordingly, the two offensive forces were initially very happy as they fulfilled their mission. The same could not be said of Wiesbaden’s defense. It revealed too many gaps, which former Eintracht professional Branimir Hrgota initially took advantage of to make it 1-2 (26th). The Fürth team came out better from the four-minute interruption due to a hole in the grass. Armindo Sieb scored for them with a powerful shot to make it 2-2 (38th). Now Wiesbaden was increasingly helpless against Fürth’s attack; With the 3:2 (43rd minute) Sieb was happy about his second goal.
Hrgota initially did not get into the category of double goalscorer because he shot a penalty kick caused by Aleksandar Vukotic over the Wiesbaden goal (67th). On the other side, Prtajin did better: He safely scored a hand penalty in front of 8,012 spectators to make it 3-3.
Wiesbaden wanted more – and ultimately found itself empty-handed. In the 83rd minute, Lukas Petkov from Fürth made it 4:3, and in added time Hrgota made it 5:3. It was the bitter end for the Hessians in a “wild ride” (coach Markus Kauczinski) through the 96 minutes of the game. “If you concede five goals, several people did something wrong,” said Mockenhaupt.
Osnabrück was almost relegated
VfL Osnabrück’s relegation from the second Bundesliga can hardly be avoided after missing a win at 1. FC Magdeburg. Lower Saxony only managed a 1:1 (1:1). Osnabrück is seven points behind the relegation place with three game days before the end of the season. Magdeburg is five points ahead of this. In front of 25,882 fans, two penalty kicks within a few minutes were enough for the goals. Daniel Teixeira (41st minute) gave Magdeburg the lead, Dave Gnaase (44th) equalized shortly afterwards.
1. FC Nürnberg is staggering towards the end of the season after another dismal performance. The 0:1 (0:1) against Karlsruher SC was the fourth defeat in a row without a goal of their own. KSC, fifth in the table, unbeaten for six games, performed dominantly in front of 35,162 spectators in the Max Morlock Stadium. The Baden team only scored once through Igor Matanovic (37th).
