“Everyone believes in the big goal” | Extremely strong in the Sweden jersey

“We want to be able to say with a clear conscience that we did everything we could in the free time to be as prepared as possible for the upcoming tasks,” said Klaus Gjasula, who spoke about the intensity of the past training days in a media round on Tuesday afternoon (March 26). A lot of hard work lies behind the lilies, whose focus is now on the challenges ahead. SV Darmstadt 98 has crucial weeks and important games ahead of them with the relegation place is in sight. „The mood is good. Everyone believes in the big goal. We will try to get the best out of it,” says Gjasula combatively.

VfL Bochum awaits on Easter Sunday (03.31/7:30pm) – a landmark game for SVD. The 34-year-old predicts that the task will not be easy, but remains optimistic: “It won’t be easy weeks, but it will be very crucial for us. Nothing is lost yet.” In addition to remaining in the upper house, the Albanian also has another goal in mind: taking part in the European Championships in the summer with the Albanian national team. He was not nominated for the international matches during this break. Despite not being taken into account, the hope of a European Championship ticket still exists for the man with the number 23: „I want to offer myself for the European Championships. I haven’t finished it yet.“

Meanwhile, the international trip worked out for another Lilien player and it was extremely successful too! For Oscar Vilhelmsson and Sweden’s U21 there were two games in the match calendar these days: first the friendly match against the junior team from Cyprus (22.03), then the European Championship qualifier against the U21 of North Macedonia (26.03). The 20-year-old from Darmstadt really let it rip. Thanks to a hat-trick in the first 45 minutes, Vilhelmsson virtually took down the Cypriots single-handedly – the final score was 6-1. The Swede also demonstrated his instinct for goal in the following game against North Macedonia. He sealed the victory with his goal in stoppage time to make it 2-0. Vilhelmsson scored four times in two games during this international period. In total, his U21 goal account already has six goals in six games for “Tre Kronor”. A very strong quota.

The SV 98 fan team continues to be in top form and is now unbeaten in five games. Four of them were won. This also applies to the game last Sunday (March 24th) at TSV Eschollbrücken. Despite the changeable weather, the Darmstadt team dominated the game. After a 1-0 half-time lead, there was a 3-1 win in the end thanks to a dominant performance. Thanks to the three-point success, the Lilies climbed to third place. After a free Easter weekend, the second team will welcome the newly overtaken fourth-placed team from Pfungstadt for the top game on Sunday (07.04/3pm).

There are also positive things to report from Darmstadt’s sister city in England, Chesterfield. Chesterfield FC celebrated promotion back to the Football League last weekend thanks to a 3-0 home win against Boreham Wood. After six seasons in the National League, the Derbyshire team is back in England’s fourth division. While they narrowly missed out on promotion last season with third place, they are now confirmed as one of the promoted teams after 41 games. With a lead of 21 points and 95 points of their own, the championship can no longer be taken away from Chesterfield with Paul Cook’s team has already scored a hundred goals this season.

This week we can celebrate two birthdays. On Monday (March 25th) our man with the number 25, Gerrit Holtmann, turned 29 years old. Tomorrow, Thursday (March 28th), another lily will have its special day. Braydon Manu is 27 years old. Happy Birthday! Good luck and success for everything to come in the new year, Braydon and Gerrit.