No Luck Against Fortuna

“The defeat is unfortunate,” said Torsten Lieberknecht at the press conference after the game. The head coach also chose this adjective to describe the 0-2 defeat on the first second division matchday of the 2024/25 season. Paul Will and Klaus Gjasula meanwhile decided to use the word “bitter” in their summaries in order to summarise the course of the game and the start of the competitive game from Lilien’s perspective. It wasn’t a playful fireworks display that both sides delivered in the first competitive game of 2024/25. Understandable when you take into account the revamped Lilien team and Fortuna’s relegation second leg. Both teams were in the discovery phase. But overall, the spectators in the Merck Stadium at the Böllenfalltor experienced a game at eye level.

Darmstadt kept up well in a balanced game for a long time and limited the individual class of Fortuna, who appeared to be extremely mature, for a long time. And this, mind you, against an opponent who narrowly missed out on promotion to the Bundesliga in the penalty shoot-out of the relegation second leg last season and is making no secret of the fact that they want to play for the top places again this year. “Düsseldorf is certainly not a walk-in customer,” Gjasula also analysed briefly and succinctly. But neither team was able to gain any real advantage on the field on Sunday afternoon. The same number of shots on goal (11:11), an almost identical share of possession with slight advantages due to the majority situation in the final phase for Düsseldorf (47:53 percent).

The own goal to make it 0-1 from Aleksandar Vukotic, who was convincing with an aerial duel rate of 100 percent and an otherwise good performance, initiated the unfortunate course of the game from Lilien’s point of view. In addition, the missed double chance by Hornby and Klefisch and later the red card against the 17-year-old debutant Othmane El Idrissi after an unsuccessful Vukotic back pass. Overall, there were too many unfortunate scenes to score points against Fortuna Düsseldorf despite a passionate performance. Of course, to reduce everything to just bad luck would be too short-sighted: after an absolutely acceptable first half, the home team didn’t get off to a good start in the second half. And the many promising opportunities and options still rarely resulted in real opportunities.

This motto was announced by the South Stand before the game in their choreography before kick-off. The Lilies on the pitch, who had five new additions to the starting line-up and later substituted three more competitive debutants, ensured with their very decent performance on the pitch, especially in the first half of the game, that the fans in the stands supported the motto with applause and could fill it with life with loud cheering. The fight and commitment were right in the Merck Stadium at the Böllenfalltor. At 55:45 percent, the duel rate and the aerial duel rate at 76:24 percent pointed even more clearly in the direction of the Darmstadt team. “It was an overall passionate performance by my team, which was also honored by the audience,” emphasised Lieberknecht. Gjasula’s words went in a similar direction, saying: „We would have liked to start the season with points in front of our fans, who supported us fantastically.“

That’s probably the motto for the new week, at the end of which the away game at SC Paderborn awaits (11.8./1.30pm). “There is still potential for improvement,” explained Will on the microphones. The penetrating power and taking advantage of scoring opportunities on the offensive, for example, or the concentrated defense in your own penalty area. This is what we need to tackle during this training week and reward ourselves with a similarly passionate performance in Paderborn. Gjasula: “Now we want to score points in Paderborn in order to really start the season.” And to use the adjective “unhappy” by omitting the first two letters to ensure a more positive headline after the second matchday.