Outnumbered: Lilies Lose to 96ers

The opening phase of the home game against Hannover 96 was fairly even, with both teams creating chances in the first ten minutes. After six minutes, Oudenne tried his luck from the edge of the penalty area, but the attempt posed no problem for Marcel Schuhen. Just a minute later, a deflected shot from Yosuke Furukawa landed at the feet of Milan Smit, whose shot was just blocked.

After 20 minutes, Darmstadt had to play the remainder of the match with ten men: Following a handball by Aleksandar Vukotic on the wing, far from the goal, referee Gerach deemed it a denial of a goalscoring opportunity and showed him a red card. A harsh decision.

Despite this, Darmstadt remained in the game and initially had the better chances. In the 36th minute, Noah Weisshaupt’s shot after a counter-attack was saved by the goalkeeper, and he then delivered another cross, but Smit’s header also ended up in Weinkauf’s arms.

Just before the halftime whistle, Lance Duijvestijn tried a volley, but the ball flew just wide of the post. Despite being down to ten men, a halftime lead for Darmstadt would have been entirely deserved.

After the break, the home side initially struggled to relieve the pressure, and the game was largely played in Darmstadt’s half. However, they rarely created any truly dangerous scoring opportunities. In the 57th minute, referee Gerach was once again in the spotlight: after Duijvestijn was struck on the arm by a shot, he reviewed the video footage and awarded a penalty. Gindorf converted the spot kick to give Hannover the lead.

Even then, Darmstadt refused to give up and came close to equalising in the 64th minute when Christopher Lannert’s long-range effort only found the side netting. Nine minutes later, Darmstadt were fortunate when Bundu’s shot struck the crossbar.

In the final phase, the visitors made better use of the space and repeatedly got shots on goal, but were repeatedly thwarted by Schuhen.