In the duel between the two second division clubs, 1. FC Nürnberg has reached the quarter-finals of the DFB Cup against Fortuna Düsseldorf after a thriller on penalties. All “clubbers” scored from the point at the end, for Fortuna the young Jona Niemiec failed.
After 90 minutes and after the end of extra time, the score was 1-1, and Nuremberg won the penalty shoot-out 5-3.
With the very fortunate success on Wednesday evening (February 8th, 2023), Fortuna had started the game very cautiously, the 1: 4 swatter at SC Paderborn may still have had an effect. Despite a double lead with Rouwen Hennings and David Kownacki, Daniel Thioune’s team initially had no idea in the game going forward. Quite different from Nuremberg, who apparently had put away the 0:1 in the derby in Fürth well.
The “Club” should have taken the lead after just under a quarter of an hour, but Jens Castrop’s header after a top cross from Lino Tempelmann missed the much better positioned Christoph Daferner in the centre. In the 26th minute, Fortuna was again very lucky when Tempelmann asserted himself brilliantly in the penalty area and nailed the ball to the crossbar from a half-right position.
Düsseldorf guided tour out of nowhere
Even this acoustic signal was not enough for Düsseldorf to wake up. After half an hour, Florian Kastenmeier first had to defuse a long-range shot by Kwadwo Duah, shortly afterwards the Fortuna keeper was also on the spot for Daferner’s header.
Nuremberg played powerfully and had to put up with the accusation of not capitalizing on their superiority. The penalty followed in the 33rd minute. Without it having been hinted at in any way, Fortuna launched her first really planned attack – and was immediately successful.
Christoph Klarer set Emmanuel Iyoha in the limelight after his attack on the left flank, and Kownacki converted his cross with a textbook header to make it 1-0 for the guests. Peter Vindahl Jensen in the “Club” goal had no chance because Jan Gyamerah and Johannes Geis kept out of the aerial duel.
Tanaka misses a big chance
After the deficit, you could tell from Nuremberg that they had to digest this shock first. Düsseldorf, on the other hand, gained confidence and could have cleared things up ten minutes after the restart – but World Cup participant Ao Tanaka shot the ball just over the goal from five meters.
There was increasingly little coming from Nuremberg on the offensive, but the guests failed to put the lid on early in the 76th minute: Kownacki had a great chance to finish after a through pass from Shinta Appelkamp, but hesitated for far too long and also missed the pass the completely free Hennings.
Co-produced by Duman and Klarer
Fortuna’s usury of chances didn’t seem to take revenge until well into injury time, because the hosts could think of nothing but long balls that easily defended the Düsseldorf defense around defender André Hoffmann. Only when substitute Mats Möller Daehli pulled away to the left in the 93rd minute and crossed sharply into the middle did Taylan Duman flick the ball in the direction of the left angle – Klarer wanted to clear, but deflected decisively into his own net to make it 1-1.
In extra time, Jorrit Hendrix could have immediately shifted the momentum back to the Düsseldorf side after a class pass from professional debutant Jona Niemiec, but standing free in front of Vindahl Jensen he pointed the ball so half-baked towards the goal that Nuremberg’s Florian Flick just missed it could scrape away from the line.
Hendrix hits the bar
Shortly before the end of the first half of extra time, the “club” was in a tizzy again: Hendrix curled a free kick from the inside right onto the crossbar. Nuremberg were threatened again by a deflected ball from Duman five minutes before the end, but this time Kastenmeier was there.
When the penalty shoot-out seemed almost over, Niemiec started again. He won the running duel against Flick, who was the last man to use the emergency brake and was sent off with a red card – but ex-Nuremberg player Daniel Ginczek then chased the free kick from 20 meters well over the bar.
Nuremberg now against Regensburg
For Nuremberg, the league continues on Saturday at 1 p.m. against Jahn Regensburg. Fortuna plays against SV Sandhausen the next day at 1.30 p.m. – both games are also available in the live ticker at sportschau.de.