Points Shared under the Lights

The top match at the Böllenfalltor stadium against FC Schalke 04 needed no time to get going. From the first minute, the game was played at a brisk pace, with Marcel Schuhen making his first save after just four minutes, parrying a shot from Karaman. Two minutes later, the home side created their first dangerous chance in the opposing penalty area, but Luca Marseiler missed a good opportunity to shoot.

In the early stages, the visitors created the more dangerous attacking opportunities. After a quarter of an hour, Ljubicic had a chance following a counter-attack, but his shot sailed over the crossbar. Three minutes later, a set piece seemed to give the Lilies the lead: after a corner, Fabian Nürnberger broke through, but his initial shot was saved by Karius. In the ensuing scramble, two Schalke players collided with each other, and the ball crossed the line. However, the joy at the Bölle was short-lived: after a VAR review, the referee ruled a foul in the build-up and disallowed the goal.

In the following period, Darmstadt managed to settle the game and circulate the ball confidently, although this initially didn’t result in any further scoring opportunities. Shortly before halftime, the linesman’s flag was incorrectly kept down for a Schalke offside position. The resulting action led to a corner kick, which Sylla headed over the line to give the visitors a 1-0 lead (45′).

However, Darmstadt remained unfazed by this setback and responded before the halftime whistle: After a free kick from Marco Richter, Patric Pfeiffer headed the ball down into the middle. There, Isac Lidberg reacted quickest, turned, and fired home to equalise and make it 1-1 in the fifth minute of added time.

Even after the change of ends, the game hardly lost any pace. Darmstadt enjoyed slightly more possession at the start of the second half, but initially failed to capitalise. While the visitors had the first dangerous shot of the second half through Becker, whose effort was saved by Schuhen in the 57th minute, the dangerous attacking moves subsequently fell primarily to the home side.

Following a corner, Fraser Hornby found himself completely unmarked in front of Karius, but the goalkeeper made a superb reflex save on 62 minutes. Just two minutes later, Kai Klefisch got his head to a cross, but couldn’t get enough power behind his header and put the ball wide. In the 76th minute, Hornby again found himself one-on-one with the keeper, but his shot from a tight angle was once more saved by Karius.

In the closing stages, the home side increased the pressure once more. Six minutes before the end of regular time, substitute Gomis appeared in the opposing penalty area, but his shot went well over the bar. In the remaining minutes, Darmstadt tried everything to secure the three points at the Böllenfalltor stadium, but were unable to force a winning goal against Schalke’s defence.