Lilies have to admit defeat in Magdeburg

The Lilies‘ away game at 1. FC Magdeburg started quickly with action on both sides. After just a few minutes, the Lilies were able to win three corners and after one of these, things became really dangerous for the first time: Aleksandar Vukotic met the ball with a header and the ball was cleared on the line just in front of Fraser Hornby, who was ready to take a shot on 4 minutes. Two minutes later the home team also had their first shot, but Schuhen parried Kaars‘ attempt.

After the guests‘ stormy opening minutes, Magdeburg subsequently had more possession of the ball, but only rarely found a way through the Darmstadt defence and so there were initially no major opportunities. The Lilies tried to achieve success through quick counterattacks and such a counterattack led to the visitors making it 1-0 after 29 minutes: After a cross from Jean-Paul Boëtius, Hornby used the ball well, prevailed against his opponent and poked the ball into the net. The next shot came four minutes later, but Killian Corredor didn’t catch the ball and the shot flew wide of the goal.

Shortly before the break, the home team’s best finish to date: Amaechi went into the middle and shot from the edge of the penalty area, Schuhen saw the ball late and was just able to fend it off. So Darmstadt went into the break with a narrow lead – a lead that was certainly not undeserved due to significantly more shots.

The first shot after the break also went to the SVD, 2 minutes into the half: Guille Bueno shot in the penalty area and Reimann in the Magdeburg goal was just able to fend off the ball. Apart from a shot from Gnaka 5 minutes after the restart, the first few minutes clearly went to the Lilies, they repeatedly combined in the opponent’s penalty area and in the 53rd minute Reimann once again prevented Hornby. It was precisely in this phase of pressure that the home team countered to equalise: Amaechi pushed in freely in front of Schuhen to make it 1-1 in the 56th minute.

After the goal, the hosts had more of the game again, but as in the first half, they rarely had any really good opportunities. The first dangerous chance promptly led to Magdeburg taking the lead: Burcu pushed a cross from close range over the line with 17 minutes remaining. After that, the Lilies found little access and had to accept the next goal five minutes later: El-Zein increased it to 3-1. Kaars capitalised on a defensive error and punished the Lilies as he made it 4-1 with 10 minutes left to play.