Fortuna curse broken

Nine minutes. Between the 65th and 74th minutes, the Lilies scored four goals, three of which found their way onto the scoreboard. Hiroki Akiyama, Fabian Nürnberger, and Isac Lidberg decided the away match in Düsseldorf during this period. „We took advantage of the mistakes and scored the goals with ice-cold precision,“ said Marcel Schuhen, who witnessed this „rush“ from around 100 metres away and also placed the hat-trick in the overall context of the second half: „After the break, we did a lot of things very well.“

Head coach Florian Kohfeldt even spoke of „the best half of the season,“ which deservedly culminated in the three goals. „Düsseldorf gave us a bit more space after the 1-0 lead, and then one attack after another became dangerous,“ Nürnberger summarised on the SKY microphone, and shortly afterwards, with a broad grin in the mixed zone, declared: „It’s just fun to be with this team.“

Schuhen’s save. The first half was also a game of goalkeepers. Florian Kastenmeier prevented Hornby and Patric Pfeiffer from going behind with sensational saves, but Marcel Schuhen also had his moment in the 33rd minute. The goalkeeper just managed to clear Zan Celar’s volley off the goal line. „Last week I put one in, today I was there. That’s my job,“ said the 32-year-old succinctly, while Nürnberger had high praise for his captain: „I don’t know if everyone can save it. That was absolutely outstanding.“

The reaction to Lidberg’s disallowed goal. In the 8th minute, the Lilies celebrated their first goal, Isac Lidberg sending the ball over the line from close range. Just two minutes later, the disappointment followed. After VAR intervention, the goal was ruled offside, and the score was disallowed. A moment that could have destabilised SV 98 in this difficult away game. „That was bitter, but then we showed the right mentality, simply carried on, and were rewarded in the second half,“ Nürnberger summarised what all spectators witnessed on Sunday. While the Lilies were certainly self-critical during periods in the first half, the criticism was by no means based on uncertainty over the disallowed goal. When asked about this situation, Schuhen summed it up in his usual way: „We didn’t care at all.“ The Lilies remained the dominant team afterward, adjusted their play at halftime, and then took control of the game. Another indication of the South Hesse side’s strong mindset: Fraser Hornby’s apparent 3-0 goal in the 70th minute was also canceled. Lidberg responded with his goal less than three minutes later.

The second half. When Florian Kohfeldt speaks of the „best half of the season,“ it certainly has a certain significance, even on Matchday 6. In all post-match interviews, the head coach offered insight into his halftime speech, in which he had certainly become somewhat louder and addressed a team that wasn’t entirely satisfied with its performance in the first half. The Lilies certainly deserved a lead at halftime, as they had great opportunities to go 1-0 up through Hornby and Pfeiffer. But Kohfeldt wasn’t the only one who had recognised spaces in the first half that his team could have exploited and exploited even better, threatening Fortuna’s goal with even more determination and determination. The speech, combined with the substantive comments at the break, had its full effect after the break. „That’s when we played our game,“ explained Marcel Schuhen, looking back on the second 45 minutes, which ultimately led to the „well-deserved“ victory.

Phases of the first half. This point can be summed up almost entirely by Florian Kohfeldt’s assessment: „I didn’t like the 30th to 35th minutes at all. We lost our nerve a bit and didn’t believe that what we had done before would lead to success. We wanted to change something, even though it wasn’t necessary at all. We clearly addressed this again at halftime.“

The head coach rightly expressed his approval of the opening phase of the game: „The boys recognised what was necessary on the pitch in the first 20 minutes. We had to remind them of that again during the break.“

It speaks volumes for the Lilies that they were unanimously self-critical after the game about the first half, which was by no means bad, but didn’t satisfy the ambitious South Hesse team. „We could have played better there,“ said Nürnberger, and Schuhen added: „We were really dissatisfied at halftime.“

All the more impressive that the Lilies used the 15 minutes so constructively that they turned impressively onto the winning road after the break.