Fortuna Düsseldorf dominates against Hertha and has numerous chances to score – but doesn’t score. But the Berliners also only punish the usury of opportunities in stoppage time.
Hertha BSC won the duel between the stumbling promotion candidates at the last second and denied Markus beginning a sense of success in the second game as coach of Fortuna Düsseldorf. The Berlin second division football team won 1-0 (0-0) in an entertaining and intense game in the Olympic Stadium and plunged the Rhinelanders even deeper into the sporting crisis.
Maurice Krattenmacher scored the celebrated winning goal for the home team in the sixth minute of stoppage time and punished Fortuna’s excessive use of chances, which left opportunities unused every minute at the beginning.
Both teams will be back in the DFB Cup in just a few days: Hertha will host league rivals SV Elversberg on Tuesday, while Düsseldorf will be underdogs against Bundesliga side SC Freiburg on Wednesday.
Fortuna with a record number of goals before halftime
Fortuna dominated the initial phase, easily getting into the Berlin penalty area and making free shots there. After 20 minutes it could have been 4-0 after chances from Christian Rasmussen or Tim Oberdorf. According to official statistics, the guests had 15 shots on goal before the break – no second division team had ever had so many shots before half-time this season.
After a nervous start with a high error rate, Hertha stabilized after 30 minutes. In the final third, the home team made almost entirely wrong decisions.
The longer the game lasted, the more pressure and goal threat Hertha developed. The capital club looked fresher and had three big chances through Dagur Thorsteinsson and Fabian Reese. In the end, however, both teams lacked quality – until Krattenmacher redeemed around 40,000 fans in the Olympic Stadium.
dpa/dp
