Cracker from Krattenmacher
©IMAGO
Hertha BSC won the duel between the stumbling promotion candidates at the last second and denied Markus beginning a sense of success in the second game as coach of Fortuna Düsseldorf. The Berliners won 1-0 (0-0) in an entertaining and intense second division game in the Olympic Stadium and plunged the Rhinelanders even deeper into the sporting crisis.
Maurice Krattenmacher scored the celebrated winning goal for the home team in the sixth minute of stoppage time and punished Fortuna’s excessive use of chances, which left opportunities unused every minute at the beginning. Both teams will be back in the DFB Cup in just a few days: Hertha will host league rivals SV Elversberg on Tuesday, while Düsseldorf will be underdogs against Bundesliga side SC Freiburg on Wednesday.
Fortuna dominated the initial phase, easily getting into the Berlin penalty area and making free shots there. After 20 minutes it could have been 4-0 after chances from Christian Rasmussen or Tim Oberdorf. According to official statistics, the guests had 15 shots on goal before the break – no second division team had ever had so many shots before half-time this season. After a nervous start with a high error rate, Hertha stabilized after 30 minutes. In the final third, the home team made almost entirely wrong decisions.
The longer the game lasted, the more pressure and goal threat Hertha developed. The capital club looked fresher and had three big chances through Jón Dagur Thorsteinsson and Fabian Reese. In the end, however, both teams lacked quality – until Krattenmacher redeemed around 40,000 fans in the Olympic Stadium with a cracker from the second row.
Defeat at Hertha BSC: Fortuna Düsseldorf has to correct goals
For Fortuna, things are looking down after just ten points from ten games. “The goal now is to get enough points to avoid slipping to the bottom. If we talk about the goal now, we don’t have to talk about other things. As we have already formulated it – if things don’t turn out that way, then we have to correct the goals. I think we should do that now. We have to get out of there first,” explained sports director Klaus Allofs according to “Picture“.
The 68-year-old also sees a positive development under the new coach. “I’m not just results-oriented. We showed the intensity that we need. That’s a step forward, even if the result hurts. That’s why I see the effect. The fact that we’re improving in terms of aggressiveness and combining, that’s getting better. So I think it was absolutely the right step,” said Allofs. Fortuna parted ways with coach Daniel Thioune after the 8th matchday.