Fortuna Düsseldorf laid the foundation for promotion to the Bundesliga with an outstanding performance in the relegation first leg at VfL Bochum.
The second division team deservedly defeated VfL 3-0 (1-0) on Thursday (May 23, 2024) in the Ruhrstadion and thus has the very best chance of making a return to the top division clear next Monday (8:30 p.m., live ticker at sportschau.de). The outstanding player that evening was the Greek Christos Tzolis, who set up Philipp Hofmann’s own goal in the 13th minute and then also set up the 2-0 by Felix Klaus (64th) and the 3-0 by Yannick Engelhardt (72nd).
Relegation to the Bundesliga arrow right
Sly Tzolis with the magic corner
Bochum clearly dominated the first ten minutes of the match, Düsseldorf had to sort itself out and was just waiting for a counterattack. But then the second division team took the lead with a stroke of genius. In the 13th minute, Tzolis curled a corner from the left directly onto the left inside post, from where the ball bounced off Hofmann’s lower leg.
Celebrations at Fortuna Düsseldorf’s 1-0 goal after Christos Tzolis’ corner
The VfL center forward wanted to signal with a waving gesture that there was no longer any danger, but he was completely wrong: the ball spun towards the Bochum goal, where substitute keeper Andreas Luthe was unfortunately and unnecessarily far behind the line – and accordingly could The representative of the suspended Manuel Riemann no longer stopped the Kullerball in front of it.
Bochum’s Bernardo fails at the post
The people of Bochum responded with furious attacks and demanded an immediate response. They almost succeeded two minutes after the 0-1, but Bernardo failed with his classy header on the post – Florian Kastenmeier in the Fortuna goal would have had no chance.
Bochum clearly remained in control of the game, but Maximilian Wittek was offside when he scored his supposed equaliser (16th minute), and Kevin Stöger only hit the side netting with a free kick five minutes later.
Fortuna is becoming more stable again and has chances
After almost half an hour, Bochum’s pressure eased a little, Fortuna was more stable again and even had two chances to extend the lead. After a lightning counterattack, Tzolis failed due to Felix Passlack’s good block. Shortly before the substitution, Vincent Vermeij had a volley from a tight angle, which Ivan Ordets cleared for a corner.
In the second half, Bochum initially tried to build up pressure again, but Fortuna remained extremely dangerous: In the 50th minute, Luthe fished out Felix Klaus’s long-range shot from the right corner with a classy save, and the VfL goalie also had to be wide awake for the subsequent corner from Tzolis, which the Greek again curled directly into the box.
Fortuna counterattack from the textbook
And Tzolis, who is on loan to Fortuna from Norwich City with an option to buy, was not finished with his strokes of genius for the evening. After winning the ball in their own penalty area, Fortuna launched another counterattack in the 64th minute and played it out like a textbook: Tzolis went steeply on the left and then passed perfectly into the seam of the Bochum defense to Klaus, who was attacking on the right – who gave Luthe no chance from close range.
After that there was nothing more from VfL, Düsseldorf worked hard to make the matter largely clear in the first leg. That was successful – and again Tzolis paved the way: He circled a free kick around the wall almost 20 minutes before the end, Luthe high-fived it forward, where Engelhardt only had to push the ball into the empty goal.
Double aluminum prevents the fourth goal
And it could have been even worse for VfL. All defensive barriers had long since been broken when Klaus was denied by Luthe from a tight angle in the 82nd minute: The keeper deflected the deflected shot so that it hit the crossbar and post and then jumped back into the field. Shortly afterwards, Luthe also had to save against Tzolis, who really wanted to reward his performance with a goal of his own – but that was really the only thing he didn’t manage to do that evening.
It was clear by the 89th minute at the latest that, despite all their efforts, nothing was going to work for the Bochum team: an artificial shot from Bernardo past the bewildered Kastenmeier hit the aluminum again.
