Defensively stable, sloppy in transition

The first-half hat trick: „Individually, it wasn’t our best performance,“ said Florian Kohfeldt after the match, reflecting on his team’s performance. Yet the Lilies could have, perhaps even should have, turned the game in their favour before halftime. Marco Richter had good opportunities to take the lead in the 27th and especially in the 36th minute, while Fraser Hornby missed another great opportunity shortly before the break. „We finished the chances we had poorly,“ Kohfeldt rightly concluded, citing one of the main reasons for the goalless draw at the Merck Stadium at Böllenfalltor.

Since Luca Marseiler also failed to convert any of his opportunities into a goal, the scoreboard remained at zero at the final whistle. The Lilies had been quite efficient in converting chances throughout the season, but the home game against FCM was a small exception.

The defence. The Lilies‘ back three was very solid throughout the entire game, and FCM didn’t have a 100% chance of scoring over the 90 minutes. The defensive line of Pfeiffer, Vukotic and Maglica was very alert, as resolute as ever in aerial duels, and also did a more than decent job on the ground. The defensive processes worked, and Marcel Schuhen was able to celebrate his fifth clean sheet of the season after the final whistle. In the entire previous season, the South Hesse side had only kept four clean sheets.

„We had a few chances, but none of the really big ones,“ explained visiting coach Petrik Sander after the match, adding: „Even the sending off didn’t have the same impact on the game.“

In summary, we’d like to use Kohfeldt’s words to round off this point: „Our defensive plan worked very well for a very long time. Overall, we conceded very little, which is positive.“

The comeback of Matthias Bader. For the first time since August 31, 2024, Matthias Bader played a competitive game for SV 98. The right-back had to wait more than 13 months for this moment after tearing his cruciate ligament and medial meniscus, suffering repeated setbacks on his way to a comeback. Against 1. FC Magdeburg, the 28-year-old was finally back in the Lilies‘ matchday squad and was immediately called upon after Sergio Lopez’s sending off. In the closing minutes, Bader played a vital role in preventing Magdeburg from conceding any more scoring opportunities, even when they were shorthanded.

We’re so happy you’re back, Matze!

The transition game. A home game against the bottom team in the table, Florian Kohfeldt is known to be a fan of targeted possession football. Considering the initial situation alone, many football fans would have predicted a game in which the ball would primarily be at SV 98’s feet. But 1. FC Magdeburg wasn’t a „typical bottom-of-the-table“ visiting, as Patric Pfeiffer reiterated after the game. Magdeburg defines itself through its possession and wants to play dominant football. The Lilies were aware of this style of play beforehand and also adapted their own game plan somewhat accordingly, as Kohfeldt explained: „The temptation is to say that you’re different and want to dominate Magdeburg. But that’s unnecessary. Today’s game showed that, too. You have to be patient and wait for the eight, nine, ten chances to win the ball, which we also had today.“

Accordingly, the Lilies‘ head coach expressed himself „by no means dissatisfied with the way the game went,“ in which SV 98 remained stable and repeatedly won the ball back. Up to this point, we could have categorised this section as „that went well,“ but the category changed due to the incidents that followed the ball wins. „What we did with it wasn’t good,“ Kohfeldt admitted candidly, citing numerous moments in which the Lilies missed the final pass.

Looking at Magdeburg’s previous season, FCM almost always significantly increased their possession statistics, but their previous opponents were able to capitalise on transitions to score goals. „We didn’t manage that,“ Kohfeldt summed up succinctly.

Their own build-up play. But it wasn’t just in their own transition play that the Lilies had room for improvement on Sunday; Kohfeldt also rightly saw room for improvement in their possession play. This had certainly been factored in to some extent in the lineup beforehand. With the switch to a back three and the associated dissolution of the double six, stability, winning the ball, and quick transitions became more important, while their own build-up play with plenty of possession and dominance deliberately lost some of its priority. „These are balancing issues. With the back three, we gained stability, but we gave up control of the game,“ said Kohfeldt, who, of course, didn’t prohibit clear and targeted ball play from their own defence. „We weren’t so good in possession that we could outplay Magdeburg,“ admitted the 43-year-old, whose overall assessment we would like to conclude our article with: „It wasn’t great, it wasn’t bad. A game we don’t need to talk about forever.“