Holstein Kiel is promoted to the Bundesliga for the first time. A 1-1 (1-0) draw in the top game against Fortuna Düsseldorf on Saturday evening was enough for the second division table leaders to become the first team from Schleswig-Holstein and the 58th club in history to make it into the first division. After this draw, the Kiel team can no longer be pushed out of one of the two promotion places on the last match day.
In front of 15,034 spectators in the sold-out Holstein Stadium, the Kiel team had to tremble again after Christos Tzolis’ equalizer (69th minute/foul penalty). At the beginning, however, they were very lucky. Benedikt Pichler took the first chance of the game to take the lead after 107 seconds. This was followed by one of the biggest upsets of the entire second division season.
Holstein defender Patrick Erras clearly cleared a header from Vincent Vermeij shortly before the goal line with his hand (4th). But although referee Sven Jablonski (Bremen) looked at the scene again on the video screen on the sidelines, a corner was awarded instead of a penalty.
“This is sensational”
“If the hand wasn’t there, the ball would have gone into the goal,” criticized Fortuna’s sports director Klaus Allofs on Sky. Düsseldorf’s attacker Felix Klaus also had an unfortunate collision with Kiel’s goalkeeper Timon Weiner and had to be replaced injured.
“This is an incredible achievement,” said sports director Carsten Wehlmann on Sky. “This is sensational for the team, for the club and for our state.” Now there will be a strong North German celebration: “It will be a very, very long night. It will be light when people go home.”
Düsseldorf has already secured the relegation place since Friday evening, when fourth-placed Hamburger SV lost 1-0 in Paderborn. Fortuna still has a small theoretical chance of direct promotion. But for second-placed FC St. Pauli on Sunday (1:30 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Bundesliga and on Sky), just one point against relegated VfL Osnabrück is enough to emulate Kiel and complete their own return to the Bundesliga after 13 years .
Kiel (19 matchdays) and St. Pauli (27) have by far been in the top two places most often of all the clubs. Holstein’s rise is therefore as surprising as it is deserved. The team was completely reassembled before the season and has had a lot of bad luck with injuries in recent months. “We have now rewarded ourselves for a fantastic season,” said Sander. “I don’t care about anything. I don’t think I’ll sleep today.”
