Raid goals, unity and a goalkeeper as a provider: Fortuna Düsseldorf ended the decline in the 2nd Bundesliga with an impressive 3-1 win against Dynamo Dresden and gained new hope in the fight to stay in the league.
The Düsseldorf team, who had fallen to second-to-last place after five defeats in a row, have now left the relegation zone with 34 points. The Dresden team, who recently gained a cushion with two wins, remain at 35 points and have to look further down in the narrow table cellar of the 2nd league.
First win for new Fortuna coach End
For coach Alexander Ende, who took over for the dismissed Markus beginning two weeks ago, it was the first success with Fortuna after the 0-2 defeat on their debut against Magdeburg.
Cedric Itten (11th minute) and Emmanuel Iyoha (17th) calmed Düsseldorf’s frayed nerves with their early goals. Luca Raimund made the preliminary decision after the break (58th) with the goal to make it 3-0. Dresden only managed to score again through Jakob Lemmer (90th).
The Düsseldorf team almost got off to a lightning start, the first shot on goal in the penalty area came after just 40 seconds: Shinta Appelkamp didn’t catch the ball properly, Dynamo keeper Tim Schreiber had no problems.
Keeper Kastenmeier directs Fortuna leadership a
As a result, Dynamo took control, had significantly more possession of the ball – but allowed themselves to be countered in the foreign stadium: Fortuna keeper Florian Kastenmeier grabbed the ball after a corner from the guests – and prepared the opening goal with a long drive: Julian Pauli and Thomas Keller did not agree and let Itten pull away, Fortuna’s striker lobbed the ball over Schreiber and into the net.
The Dresden team tried to answer: Jason Ceka had the first good chance after a corner, but missed from a promising position (16th).
Iyoha with the second goal before halftime
Everything continued to go well for Fortuna, who had better luck with a corner straight away: the ball fell at Iyoha’s feet, his shot was deflected by Robert Wagner and rolled into the right corner.
The Dresden team seemed spurred on by the deficit and increased the pressure. Fortuna was wobbling: Tim Oberdorf’s header attempt to clear the score almost brought the goal home, but the ball flew just past his own goal (29′). Five minutes later Wagner had the best chance to score, Kastenmeier made a brilliant save.
Düsseldorf’s Elias Egouli and Tim Oberdorf defend against Dresden’s Vincent Vermeij
Düsseldorf’s keeper then almost recorded his second assist, it would have been a copy of the first goal: Itten started again after Kastenmeier’s kick and processed the ball directly, this time with a direct shot at the near corner – Schreiber extended his paw and prevented the third goal (42nd).
The Dresden team remained in control after the break and tried to find a way into this game: Ben Bobzien had the next good chance to connect, but he couldn’t get past Kastenmeier, who was once again strong.
Düsseldorf with passion – and ice cold when countering
However, the Düsseldorf team continued to be strong in duels and attentive, defended their lead with a lot of passion – and made really good use of their transition opportunities: Itten was involved again, who held the ball on the left wing and then passed it back to Raimund with a lot of overview – the left-back, who was substituted shortly before the break, gave Dynamo keeper Schreiber no chance with a well-placed shot into the corner – after just under an hour this meant the preliminary decision.
The Dresden team were served after conceding their third goal on the counterattack, and the victory for Fortuna could have been even clearer in the end: Dynamo keeper Schreiber prevented the score from being 0-4, directing a header from Anouar El Azzouzi onto the crossbar (69′).
Only when Fortuna switched too much into administration mode in the final minutes did Dresden become dangerous again. But the goal from Lemmer’s header came too late.
Düsseldorf against Schalke, Dresden against Kaiserslautern
The Düsseldorf team gained new hope with the victory, the rest of the program is still tough: With Schalke and Elversberg, Fortuna still has to play against two promotion hopefuls. The guest appearance at FC Schalke is next week on matchday 32, with the top game on Saturday evening (8.30 p.m.). Dresden welcomes 1. FC Kaiserslautern on Saturday afternoon (1 p.m.).
