Shooting time at Böllenfalltor!

The “Lilien” pros put the ball in the direction of the Karlsruher SC goal an impressive 26 times last Saturday, only two attempts ended up in the net in the all in all unpleasant 2-2 draw.

At the beginning of the training week, head coach Torsten Lieberknecht let everyone shoot straight away.

No measure to deal with frustration, because you don't have to deal with much of that in the second division team from Darmstadt 98.

Rather, an act to restore the previously adequate marksmanship for months.

But of course something goes wrong in training.

Quite a few (violent) shots landed on the neighboring tennis court of the TEC Darmstadt, and so many "must have landed so slowly", joked Lieberknecht.

The fact that the football coach from the Palatinate really enjoys his job in southern Hesse was again clearly audible and noticeable at the press conference on Thursday.

Lieberknecht did not see the missed leap to the top of the table at the beginning of the year as a setback despite the overwhelming number of chances.

Second place is still the result of only one defeat from the past twelve games. The well-known teams from Hamburg, Bremen and Schalke sit behind the “lilies” in tabular form. "It's good for us to be who we are," said Lieberknecht. "We're still hunting. We don't feel like the hunted, rather we say: Let's continue to be hunters together of these big names who talk about the rise."

This Saturday (1.30 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the 2nd Bundesliga and on Sky) it is again against a former Bundesliga club, but the opponent could not be further away from this episode at the moment.

In Bavaria, the Darmstadt team meet bottom-placed FC Ingolstadt (10 points and only 15 goals scored in 19 games).

Since the long-standing Wehen coach Rüdiger Rehm took over, a lot has been invested in fresh player legs.

Usable insights from the first leg, when ecstatically acting Darmstadt won 6:1 and started the winning streak that took them from the bottom of the table to the top places, shouldn't have been many left.

Due to a low sick leave for weeks, Lieberknecht has almost the full selection from his squad.

In this way, the core staff are kept on their toes, but to the chagrin of many internal competitors, they have not let up so far.

In fact, nine out of eleven positions in the starting lineup have been fixed for weeks.

Changes are usually only made on the offensive wing positions.

"We have a core of players who form a solid construct," says Lieberknecht.

From his point of view, the backbenchers in the squad do not give up.

In those training sessions, which are reserved for the players who did not play at the weekend, the "level and commitment of the players is very high," says Lieberknecht.

"As long as they keep the team spirit high despite their own disappointment, we're still on the right track."