Sports Second League
Düsseldorf is on course for promotion, Osnabrück is on the verge of relegation
As of: 3:42 p.m. | Reading time: 3 minutes
Six games, six wins – Fortuna Düsseldorf’s soaring in the second division continues. The success over Fürth improves the starting position in the promotion race and puts FC St. Pauli under pressure. Osnabrück, on the other hand, has little chance of staying in the league.
Fortuna Düsseldorf can still hope for a return to the Bundesliga. With the 1-0 (0-0) against SpVgg Greuther Fürth, coach Daniel Thioune’s team consolidated third place in the table. Thanks to Vincent Vermeij’s goal (69th), the former first division team celebrated their sixth league win in a row and reduced the gap to second division runners-up FC St. Pauli to two points. However, the recently faltering North Germans can restore the old gap on Sunday with a win at Hannover 96.
Even without their top goalscorer Christos Tzolis, who was suspended, Fortuna initially took command. But after two early chances from Vermeij (2nd) and Dennis Jastrzembski (6th), Düsseldorf found it increasingly difficult to unsettle the visitors’ defense. This encouraged the guests to fight back more. However, Jomaine Consbruch’s shot from close range (39′) was too unplaced.
At the beginning of the second half, Düsseldorf were lucky when a handball by Yannik Engelhardt (48th) in their own penalty area went unpunished after video review. Although they continued to try to take the lead, they were too unimaginative for a long time. Only an unsuccessful header defense by Consbruch paved the way. After a quick pass from Shinta Appelkamp, Vermeij deliberately hit the far corner from the right side and thus ensured the lackluster victory.
Osnabrück – Braunschweig 0:3
Eintracht Braunschweig has taken a big step towards staying in the league and has all but sealed the relegation of VfL Osnabrück. The Braunschweig team won the Lower Saxony duel in Osnabrück on Saturday 3-0 (2-0) and thus improved, at least temporarily, to 13th place in the table. Osnabrück, on the other hand, remains bottom of the table and is seven points behind the relegation place with four game days before the end of the season.
In front of 15,741 spectators in the sold-out stadium at the Bremer Brücke, Anton Donkor (9th minute) and Rayan Philippe (40th) gave the guests the lead in the first half. After the break, Johan Gomez (60th) made everything clear for the team of coach Daniel Scherning, who once worked as a coach in Osnabrück. Kwasi Okyere Wriedt also missed a penalty kick in stoppage time for the purple-whites.
Kaiserslautern – Wehen Wiesbaden 1:1
In the fight to stay in the league, 1. FC Kaiserslautern missed out on an important home win and remains in a direct relegation spot in the table. On the 30th matchday, coach Friedhelm Funkel’s team only managed a 1-1 (1-0) draw against rivals SV Wehen Wiesbaden. The goals were scored by Filip Kaloc (30th minute) for FCK and Ivan Prtajin (74th) for the guests.
The 42,861 spectators in the Fritz Walter Stadium saw a staid game in the first half, which was characterized by many duels and many high balls. However, Kaiserslautern had control of the game against the defensively focused guests, but scoring opportunities remained scarce on both sides. After half an hour, a corner kicked by Tymoteusz Puchacz helped FCK take the lead. Boris Tomiak extended to Kaloc, who headed the ball to make it 1-0.
Kaiserslautern’s Filip Kaloc (l.) in a duel for the ball with Wiesbaden’s Robin Heußer (r)
Source: dpa/Jörg Halisch
The Wiesbaden team came out of the break more actively and in the 61st minute Aleksandar Vukotic headed the ball from a corner, but FCK goalkeeper Julian Krahl made a brilliant save. Four minutes later, Prtajin put a header just wide of the Palatinate goal. As a result, the hosts were better in the game again, but Prtajin did better in the final phase and scored from distance to make the final score 1-1, which was well deserved.
