Fifth consecutive home win!

The opening minutes of the home game against 1. FC Kaiserslautern clearly belonged to Darmstadt. Just five minutes in, Fabian Nürnberger played a through ball into the penalty area, Luca Marseiler outpaced his marker and could only be stopped by a foul – penalty for the home side. Fraser Hornby sent the keeper the wrong way and confidently converted to make it 1-0 on 6 minutes. Two minutes later, the Scot almost made it 2-0, but his bouncing shot was tipped over the bar.

The visitors took considerably longer to find their rhythm. After the opening quarter of an hour, Kaiserslautern repeatedly ventured near the hosts‘ penalty area, but initially failed to seriously test Marcel Schuhen. The visitors from southern Hesse, on the other hand, were clinical and capitalised on their next opportunity to make it 2-0: Marco Richter passed the ball to Hornby, whose cross was converted by Fynn Lakenmacher in the middle with 29 minutes on the clock.

With a two-goal lead, the visitors from southern Hesse then controlled the game and allowed the visitors from the Palatinate region hardly any further dangerous attacks. Following a set piece, the Lilies extended their lead even further: Richter delivered a corner into the box, where Kai Klefisch stooped to head the ball precisely into the corner on the stroke of half time.

Four minutes into the second half, Darmstadt put themselves under pressure with a misplaced pass in their own penalty area, but the visitors failed to capitalise on the opportunity. At the other end, Hornby had a chance to make it 4-0: after Marseiler had flicked the ball on with his heel, the striker initially sent his defender sliding past him, but his shot was saved by Krahl in the visitors‘ goal after 52 minutes.

When Darmstadt threatened, it was almost always in front of the visitors‘ goal. Two attempts on the hour mark, firstly saw Lakenmacher narrowly missing out on scoring his second goal after a cross from Sergio Lopez, then Hiroki Akiyama’s shot was just blocked for a corner.

Even in the final stages, Darmstadt remained composed. They controlled the game, conceded very little defensively, and were always dangerous with their own attacks. Only shortly before the final whistle did Kaiserslautern come close to scoring, but the Darmstadt defence ultimately cleared all their shots. In stoppage time, Niklas Schmidt played a long ball forward and Marseiler was alert enough to get to the ball first and poke it beyond Krahl to make it 4-0.