Opposition Check: 1. FC Magdeburg

Eighth minute: 1-0 for Greuther Fürth. What followed was pure spectacle. 13th, 15th, 23rd, 29th, and 33rd minutes: From 1-0 down – within just 20 minutes – to 5-1 up. A record! Those were 20 minutes in which Magdeburg completely turned on the style. 20 minutes that no club in the 2. Bundesliga had ever used so efficiently. But that wasn’t the end of it. The Fürth team also wanted to put on a show. At halftime, it was 3-5 from Fürth’s perspective. Eight goals in 45 minutes? The highest-scoring halftime in the history of the 2. Bundesliga! Only in the match between Kaiserslautern and Meppen in 1997 were eight goals also scored before the halftime whistle – 6-2, the score at the break back then.

Despite pulling a goal back, Fürth’s hopes of a comeback were dashed – the final score was 5-4. Such a goal fest is a rare occurrence in a player’s career, unless, of course, you’re playing for Magdeburg or Fürth this season. The first leg was no less exciting, with Fürth winning 5-4. For Magdeburg, however, the victory in the return leg proved to be their last win in the recent second division matches. Subsequently, FCM suffered defeats against Bielefeld (0-2), Schalke (3-5), Karlsruhe (1-3), and Elversberg (0-1). As a result, Magdeburg slipped to the bottom of the table ahead of their match against SV Darmstadt 98 next Friday evening (March 13th, 6:30pm).

Attention! Danger lurks from outside the area. Even if the Magdeburg lads are facing an impenetrable defense, they still have an ace up their sleeve. With 35 goals this season, Petrik Sander’s team may only have an average tally, but… The FCM players have realised that goals aren’t only scored from inside the box. 1. FC Magdeburg boasts the league-wide record for goals from outside the penalty area: Magdeburg has already netted seven goals this season without ever having to enter the box. They also lead the league in overall shots from outside the penalty area (162). So, beware of FCM’s long-range efforts!

He is currently the beacon of light for 1. FC Magdeburg in the relegation zone. Already hailed by many media outlets as a beacon of hope, Mateusz Zukowski’s goals are expected to keep the traditional East German club in the league. The Polish striker has already racked up eleven goals and three assists, meaning he is involved in over a third of all Magdeburg’s goals. This year alone, he has eight scorer points, six of which he collected in the two matches against Greuther Fürth and Schalke 04.

Until recently, it was completely unforeseeable that the Pole possessed such goalscoring qualities. He started his career as a right-back. And even before his move to Magdeburg, Zukowski was more at home on the wing. Just five goals in over one hundred top-flight matches in Poland hardly suggested the kind of breakthrough he’s currently experiencing in Magdeburg. But FCM believed in the 24-year-old, who had gained plenty of experience in his home country and even spent a year and a half under contract with the prestigious Glasgow Rangers.

Zukowski has been a club player since this season. But every beginning was difficult: due to a foot injury, he didn’t make his first competitive appearance for FCM until November. This fact makes it all the more remarkable that the Polish youth player has already contributed to 14 goals. Petrik Sander, head coach of 1. FC Magdeburg, emphasised the importance of the centre forward after the 5-4 victory in Fürth in February (where Zukowski scored a hat trick): „He is incredibly important for us because he brings a power and dynamism that we completely lacked.“ Zukowski himself summed it up in a few words: „I’m hungry for goals,“ said the Polish striker for 1. FC Magdeburg.