Analysis: The 60:30 ratio in Magdeburg

The 1-1 and its consequences. Yes, someone in an orange jersey should have pulled it off. The tactical foul. Somewhere near the halfway line, at the latest in front of their own eighteen-yard box. There were plenty of opportunities to stop 1. FC Magdeburg’s attack before Xavier Amaechi equalised in the 56th minute. After an offensive move by Darmstadt, the crucial point of the game came: Livan Burcu started dribbling in Magdeburg’s half and was able to break through almost unhindered to the edge of SV 98’s penalty area to serve the leveller. At least three or four Lilies could have stopped the dribbler. But: there was unfortunately no consequence in this scene. And a yellow card for a tactical foul was not accepted.

A goal conceded with consequences. A goal conceded that threw the Lilies off course and gave FCM plenty of leverage. While the Lilies lost their composure, Magdeburg kept their foot on the gas and remained consistent. „It’s hard to explain why we fell apart so much in the end,“ said Andreas Müller angrily. After the equaliser, Darmstadt conceded three more goals that were far too easy, sealing a clear 4 – 1 defeat, which neither the Darmstadt guests nor the Magdeburg hosts thought possible after the first 60 minutes.

The first 60 minutes. Brutal and really good. Outstanding. That is how the protagonists from South Hesse described that hour in Magdeburg. The Darmstadt team put in a strong performance in the first half. They were dangerous from set piece situations, and the Lilies were also able to repeatedly get dangerously close to the opponent’s goal from open play. The perfectly worked goal to make it 1-0 by Fraser Hornby (29th minute) was only logical. The South Hesse team had enough chances to score more goals – both in the first half and in the first few minutes after the break.

Meanwhile, the Darmstadt team left little to nothing to chance defensively. SV 98 did not allow the otherwise strong Magdeburg team, who had already scored 48 goals this season before kick-off and thus had the second strongest attack in the league, to develop. „We defended really well and compactly until the 1 – 1 and drove Magdeburg a little crazy,“ said Marcel Schuhen, praising his team’s defensive unit. Magdeburg is one of the strongest offensive teams in the league, said Kohfeldt: „And we defended pretty much everything for 60 minutes.“

The lack of order in the last 30 minutes. Much of what SV Darmstadt 98 did right in the defensive unit in the first 60 minutes was sorely lacking after the equaliser. „We didn’t want to play wild football,“ explained Marcel Schuhen: „But after the 1 – 1 it got wild. That wasn’t the plan. And rightly so, because then we saw what was happening.“ SV 98 lost order, said the goalkeeper. This left FCM with a lot of room for its dangerous and fast combination play. Kohfeldt also underlined this: „I have to blame the team for losing order after the 1 – 1, which was already an individual mistake. And then a team like Magdeburg is in a position to punish something like that.“

Kohfeldt emphasised at the press conference before the duel that 1. FC Magdeburg is a clear favourite for promotion in its current form. With 41 points, the Elbe city team is fully in the fight for promotion to the Bundesliga and is in the relegation spot. Four home goals against the Lilies also made Magdeburg the best attack in the league. Yes, 1. FC Magdeburg has enormous qualities. But the Lilies‘ performance in the last half hour made it far too easy for this team. „If you let a team like that get going and let it do its thing, it will be extremely difficult.“ That was the tone of the Darmstadt team after the final whistle. Unfortunately, that is exactly what the Lilies did in the last 30 minutes: they lost their order, played a wild game and left the FCM a large field. The Darmstadt team therefore blamed themselves, even if the 4 – 1 score was of course very high in the end. “But we have only ourselves to blame for that because of the last half hour,” complained head coach Kohfeldt.

The lack of consistency in the first 60 minutes. 14 shots on goal – some of them top-class ones. On the other side, FCM had 16 shots. A statistic that doesn’t exactly look like a 4 – 1 defeat from the Lilies‘ point of view. Yes, there is a lot of subjunctive in the following sentence: But if Darmstadt had consistently used their chances, it could easily have been 3 – 0 or 4 – 0. Especially after the break, the guests clad in orange came dangerously close to the opponent’s goal several times. „If you make it 2:0 and kill the opponent with it, it will be difficult for Magdeburg to come back,“ emphasised Andreas Müller, visibly disappointed, in the catacombs of the Magdeburg Arena. But the Lilies lacked exactly this consistency, which the home team showed on the other side, much to Darmstadt’s chagrin. FCM played out its attacks consistently, kept their foot on the gas and scored the goals. „We could have won the game, but we didn’t,“ said Kohfeldt. That was exactly what made the big difference on Sunday.