Leader Darmstadt 98 marches further in the direction of the Bundesliga. Coach Torsten Lieberknecht’s team drew 1-1 (0-1) in the top game against Hamburger SV and maintained a four-point lead over second in the table.
Ransford-Yeboah Königsdörffer (4th) gave HSV the lead, but substitute Filip Stojilkovic (81st) equalized. Darmstadt thus prevented the first defeat in the 2nd division since the first matchday (0:2 in Regensburg).
“Of course we would have liked to make it over time, but we’ll take the point with us, everything is fine,” said HSV captain Sebastian Schonlau on “Sky”. Lieberknecht was also satisfied. “We started boldly despite the bad start. There was a lot of faith and willpower to see,” said the coach on “Sport1”.
The guests got off to a dream start in front of 16,800 spectators in the sold-out stadium at Böllenfalltor. Königsdörffer used a pass from Moritz Heyer to score his sixth goal of the season. He was only in the starting XI because Bakery Jatta was late for the team meeting.
HSV plays courageously despite the lead
It took Lilien a quarter of an hour to recover from the shock of being behind. Then the hosts took over and put HSV deep on the defensive. Frank Ronstadt failed with an oblique shot by goalkeeper Daniel Heuer Fernandes (22nd), Christoph Zimmermann headed just wide (30th).
The best opportunity to equalize in the first half was missed by Mathias Honsak, who only hit the inside of the post after a cross pass from Phillip Tietz (41′), then Heuer Fernandes just saved it on the line.
After the change, HSV did not hide and sought the decision. Darmstadt initially found it difficult to develop pressure. Heuer Fernandes had no trouble with a header from Stojilkovic (68th), then the Joker completed ice cold after a strong start.