Darmstadt 98 may have made a decisive mistake in the promotion thriller of the second Bundesliga.
The lilies lost 1:2 (0:2) at Fortuna Düsseldorf on the penultimate match day after a completely sleepy start.
SC Paderborn also recorded a home win in a 2-0 (1-0) win against SV Sandhausen.
Emmanuel Iyoha (3rd) and Matthias Zimmermann (10th) caused long faces at Darmstadt with their goals early on, Tobias Kempe (60th) only managed to catch up with a penalty kick.
The second in the table can thus be overtaken by both Werder Bremen and Hamburger SV in the course of the weekend.
After red against Fortuna's Daniel Ginczek (89th) and yellow-red against Darmstadt's Klaus Gjasula (89th), both teams ended the game with only ten men.
Fortuna remained undefeated in the twelfth game under coach Daniel Thioune.
It is also clear that table leaders Schalke 04 can make their return to the top flight perfect with a home win against St. Pauli on Saturday.
In front of 31,622 spectators, Fortuna got off to a dream start: 24-year-old Iyoha, who has been playing for the red-whites since 2011, scored his first goal for the club from his hometown with a left-footed shot.
A little later, Zimmermann even raised after nice preliminary work from Felix Klaus.
After the break Darmstadt blew to catch up.
First Marvin Mehlem missed the big chance to connect, then Kempe scored from the point.
But it wasn't enough for a draw.
In Paderborn, the local SC remained undefeated in the sixth game in a row.
In a duel in which both teams no longer pursued any great ambitions on matchday 33, Sandhausen, who were saved from relegation, were initially a little better - but Paderborn scored.
And how: Florent Muslija (27th) managed a fantastic right-footed shot from almost 30 meters into the corner.
Philipp Klement (60th) made everything clear.