Promotion fight in the 2nd league
Elversberg jumps furiously to second place – Hannover fails
Updated May 3, 2026 – 3:57 p.mReading time: 3 minutes
After Schalke’s promotion, three teams are still fighting for second and third place. Elversberg won the top game. Dramatic scenes took place in Hanover.
SV Elversberg has put itself in pole position for promotion to the Bundesliga two game days before the end of the season. The Saarlanders defeated SC Paderborn in the top game 5:1 (4:0) and jumped to second place.
Hannover 96 could also have been written on this. But Lower Saxony couldn’t get past a 3:3 (2:2) draw in a dramatic game against bottom team Preußen Münster. The equalizer for the relegation candidate only came in stoppage time.
Meanwhile, Darmstadt 98 finally said goodbye to the promotion race. The “Lilien” lost to Karlsruher SC 1:2 (0:0). Hertha BSC also lost 0-1 (0-0) in Magdeburg. Greuther Fürth and 1. FC Nürnberg drew 1-1 (1-1) in the Frankenderby.
Maximilian Rohr (4th), David Mokwa (18th), Lukas Petkov with a brace (28th/42nd) and Raif Adam (90th + 3) put Elversberg on the winning road. Calvin Brackelmann scored for Paderborn (65th). SC striker Steffen Tigges saw a yellow-red card late on (90+5).
The duel between fourth and second would be an “all-out game,” SVE coach Vincent Wagner emphasized before the game. His team will “play forward at full speed” – and how they did it. A week after the bitter 3-2 defeat against Schalke, Paderborn couldn’t keep up at all at the beginning, couldn’t get a single win against a team from the top four this season and now no longer has promotion in their own hands.
The Prussians, who were initially very effective, took the lead through Imad Rondić (25′) and Shin Yamada (39′), but 96 countered before the break through Mustapha Bundu (45’+1, 45’+4). After the break, Stefan Thordarson scored with a fantastic long-range shot (85th) to give the “Reds” the lead – but Jorrit Hendrix (90th + 3) crashed the party.
