Lilien defeat St. Gallen

A lively game developed right from the start against this year’s Conference League participants, in which the Lilies initially had the majority of the game. After just one minute, the ball found its way into the Swiss net for the first time, but goalscorer Fraser Hornby was just offside when Fabian Nürnberger passed the ball. Nevertheless, the Lilien fans who had traveled didn’t have to wait long for SV 98 to take the lead and it turned out to be a strange goal: When Hugo Vandermesch passed the ball back, St. Gallen keeper Lawrence Zigi positioned himself a little too far next to his goal and was only able to reach his defender’s pass the tip of the foot. The ball bounced from there into the net via the inside post on 5 minutes.

With the lead behind them, SV 98 remained the more active team and kept pushing for another goal over the course of the first 45 minutes. Andi Müller (24′) and Fynn Lakenmacher (27′) were denied by Zigi, and a header from Fraser Hornby (32′) flew just over the box.

In the 38th minute of the game, the ball found its way into the net, but goal scorer Hornby was again waved back due to an offside position from Lakenmacher. The 1-0 lead remained intact after 45 minutes.

After the break, the line-up continued unchanged, but there were no really good opportunities to score at first. In the 61st minute, head coach Florian Kohfeldt made seven changes, with only Riedel, Vukotic, Klefisch and Lakenmacher remaining on the pitch. As soon as he was in the box, Alexander Brunst had to demonstrate his skills for the first time. The keeper deflected a tricky cross from Konrad Faber over the crossbar with his fingertips. Just a few seconds later, Luca Marseiler caused danger with an attempt, the ball narrowly passed the near corner. Nothing more happened until the end of the 90 minutes.

After the usual playing time was over, Kohfeldt made the remaining four changes. In the 92nd minute, Fabio Torsiello almost made it 2-0, but after a nice assist from Othmane El Idrissi, the attacker missed the goal by centimeters from close range. There were no further big chances until the final whistle after 120 minutes, so the Lilies kept a clean slate in the mammoth test and were able to gain further self-confidence before the start of the second half of the season against Düsseldorf on January 17th.

Line-Up: Schuhen (61. Brunst) – Lopez (61. Thiede), Hornby (61. Torsiello), Nürnberger (61. Bueno), Müller (61. Papela), Klefisch (91. Arania), Förster (61. Kempe), Lakenmacher (91. El Idrissi), Vukotic (91. Pfister), Corredor (61. Marseiler), Riedel (91. Baier)