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Fortuna's fight is not rewarded

Photo: David Inderlied / dpa

In the DFB Cup, Fortuna Düsseldorf and FC Kaiserslautern won in the quarter-finals and can continue to dream of the title. However, the semi-finalists suffered setbacks on the 20th matchday of the 2nd Bundesliga. Düsseldorf was already 3-0 down at half-time at SC Paderborn and ended up losing 4-3. The Lauterers lost to SV Elversberg 1:2 (1:1). Meanwhile, Hannover 96 beat Hansa Rostock 2:1 (1:1).

Five days after the cup quarter-finals, Fortuna Düsseldorf failed to move closer to the promotion ranks. The hosts from Paderborn looked livelier, David Kinsombi gave them the deserved lead after a cross from the right side (19th minute). Fortuna's offensive, actually the best in the league with HSV's, remained harmless. Instead, the East Westphalians extended their lead with simple combination play: Mattes Hansen and Filip Bilbija pushed in undisturbed (34th/37th).

With the three-goal lead, Paderborn seemed to feel a little too confident after the break. A throw-in was enough to take the SCP defense by surprise, Yannik Engelhardt used it to score a goal that awakened Fortuna's fighting spirit (49'). New winter signing Marlon Mustapha reduced the score to 2:3 from Fortuna's perspective after fighting his way into the penalty area (55').

In the final phase, Ilyas Ansahab dribbled along the baseline and passed into the backcourt. From there, Koen Kostons scored to make it 4-2 (82'), before Düsseldorf's Dennis Jastrzembski once again caused tension in stoppage time (90'). With 31 points, both teams are now five points behind the relegation place.

There wasn't much separating the two clubs before the game, both geographically (around 50 kilometers) and in the table (exactly four points). An 18-year-old scored the first goal in the Saar-Palatinate derby: Paul Wanner, on loan from FC Bayern, showed what he had learned from the record champions. He took a thankless half-high cross cleanly in the penalty area and finished with his second touch of the ball (19th minute). After around half an hour the game had to be interrupted because lemons were thrown onto the field. Referee Deniz Aytekin subjected the fruit to a taste test.

Shortly before the break, Ragnar Ache equalized with a well-placed inside shot from 20 meters (45.+6). In the second half, the Saarland team took the lead again. Thore Jacobsen converted a justifiable hand penalty and gave Elversberg victory (56th). Kaiserslautern is 15th in the table. still deep in the relegation battle, Elversberg, on the other hand, is gaining some breathing room and is now ninth.

The northern duel got off to a very unfortunate start for the Rostock team: a corner from Hanover fell into the six-yard box, where Hansa's Kevin Schumacher put the ball into his own goal (4th minute). When the fans threw tennis balls onto the pitch in protest against the planned investment of investors in the German Football League, the game had to be interrupted several times until the players were finally sent to the dressing room. However, the game could be continued after eight minutes.

The guests were lucky in the extra time of the first half. Kai Pröger intercepted a pass from 96 goalkeeper Ron-Robert Zieler and pushed in (45.+5). Marcel Halstenberger scored the decisive goal to make it 2-1 with a header, and again Rostock didn't look good after a corner (78'). Shortly before the end, Halstenberg was once again the focus when he stepped up and was therefore shown a red card (89th).

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