The North Germans suffered a late blow in a hard-fought game in Magdeburg. Karlsruhe is having a hard time dealing with contractions in Wiesbaden. A man cuts a very unhappy figure – the guests benefit from thrilling circumstances.
There was more to it: Holstein Kiel lost an important victory in the second league promotion race at the last minute. The storks couldn’t get past a 1-1 (1-0) draw at 1. FC Magdeburg on Friday evening of the 20th matchday. This means that the North Germans are still second in the table ahead of Greuther Führt for the time being, but they missed out on a better starting position. The Franconians can pass again at the weekend.
Timo Becker (27th) gave the visitors the lead, winter newcomer Emir Kuhinja let the hosts celebrate a point late with his first touch of the ball (90th + 5). In addition, Magdeburg’s Luc Castaignos (55th) failed in front of 20,097 spectators with a hand penalty against the well-reacting Kiel goalkeeper Timon Weiner.
Drewes brought Wehen Wiesbaden back into the game
In the second game on Friday, Wehen Wiesbaden held off Karlsruher SC with a 2-2 (0-1). Ivan Prtajin (48th) and Nick Bätzner (74th) each equalized for the guests after Budu Zivzivadze (35th) and Igor Matanovic (53rd) had given Karlsruhe the lead twice. The KSC was also lucky in the final phase that a hand penalty caused by Christoph Kobald (83rd) was taken back after checking with the help of VAR.
In addition, KSC goalkeeper Patrick Drewes made a mistake, allowing one of the opponent’s shots to rebound before both goals were conceded, thus helping the Hessians to a point. While the hosts initially moved up to seventh place at the start of the 20th matchday, Wehen Wiesbaden remained eleventh in the table.