Arminia Bielefeld wanted to take a giant step towards staying in the league at Betzenberg. But an early, unnecessary foul was the beginning of the end.
In the exciting relegation battle of the 2nd Bundesliga, Arminia Bielefeld missed a preliminary decision. After the deserved 0:2 (0:2) defeat at 1. FC Kaiserslautern on matchday 33, the promoted team may still need points at the end of the season to avoid relegation. Two points separate Arminia from the relegation zone, the numerous competitors can still overtake them at the weekend.
Marlon Ritter (15th, penalty kick) and Simon Asta (29th) scored the goals on Friday, meaning Kaiserslautern celebrated a morally important victory after three previous defeats without a goal of their own.
“Every player on the pitch, whether it was the oldest player or the youngest that we put on the pitch today – they grabbed their honor today and simply wanted to refute what was rightly thrown at us,” FCK coach Torsten Lieberknecht told Sportschau.
Craftsman pushes Gyamfi over
The game started with a setback for Bielefeld. Central defender Maximilian Bauer collided hard with Jonas Kersken and sustained a bleeding head wound. He had to be replaced and Maximilian Großer came on for him.
After a quarter of an hour, Arminia put obstacles in their own way when Tim Handwerker violently knocked over Maxwell Gyamfi in his own penalty area. There was no danger of scoring in this situation because the Lauter player was moving away from the goal towards the goal line. Ritter took the penalty and converted safely.
Marlon Ritter celebrates his goal.
Arminia had to make do without their red-banned head coach Mitch Kniat; assistant coach Daniel Jara coached for him on the sidelines. The 37-year-old Spaniard saw his team come back into the game better after going behind. Jannik Rochelt was on the verge of equalizing, but missed from close range (22′).
“We have our last game next week. We can call this the finale. In any case, we have to be there at home – this is the last chance“, said Bielefeld’s assistant coach Daniel Jara later on the sports show microphone.
Knight serves Asta
However, the second FCK goal came right in the middle of this strong Bielefeld phase. After a supposedly clarified situation, Arminia was already moving forward when Kaiserslautern won the ball back. So Ritter was completely free on the half-right, served Asta perfectly and the 25-year-old right-back scored his first goal of the season.
Kaiserslautern then defended its lead confidently, and 19-year-old debutant David Schramm played well in defensive midfield. The two-goal lead at the break was okay.
Bassette sees yellow for premature goal celebration
After almost an hour, Lautern even upped the ante, Norman Bassette completed a counterattack and took off his jersey while celebrating. This is generally a bad idea because it inevitably results in a yellow card. The action is particularly annoying when the goal is subsequently canceled – which happened in this case because of a close offside situation.
It remained one of the few unfortunate scenes for the Lauter team; they didn’t let anything go wrong defensively. However, Bielefeld also lacked ideas and, despite having a lot of ball possession, no longer had any top-class scoring opportunities.
Lautern in Magdeburg, Bielefeld against Hertha
Bielefeld now gets its unwanted final to stay in the league next Sunday against Hertha BSC. Kaiserslautern could possibly help Arminia with a win against 1. FC Magdeburg, who are also threatened with relegation. All games will kick off at 3:30 p.m. on the final matchday (Sunday, May 17th).
