Three Points! In Düsseldorf!

The Lilies got off to a better start in Düsseldorf and made an early statement: After just seven minutes, Fraser Hornby found himself unmarked in front of Kastenmeier after a long clearance from Marcel Schuhen, but the Fortuna keeper made a brilliant save with his foot. The resulting corner brought the next dangerous moment: Kastenmeier misjudged the situation, Hornby headed the ball back across, and Isac Lidberg headed the ball over the line. Darmstadt’s celebrations were short-lived, however, as the Swede was seemingly offside by a whisker – VAR disallowed the goal on 8 minutes.

The Lilies remained the more active and better team in the ensuing period. Fortuna primarily waited for quick counterattacks, but these rarely posed any real threat. Big scoring opportunities initially eluded them – only a long-range shot from Killian Corredor in the 16th minute created some danger, but Kastenmeier had no trouble dealing with it. In the 24th minute, a Darmstadt corner again posed a great threat, but Kastenmeier made a great save to push Patric Pfeiffer’s header around the post.

The South Hesse side were superior in all statistics, but suddenly the home side had a huge opportunity to take the lead: Following a cross, Celar shot from close range, but his volley was denied by Schuhen’s powerful reflex save with 33 minutes on the clock. After this move, Fortuna developed a brief period of pressure, but the 98ers survived it without any major problems.

Despite Darmstadt’s strong performance and several good opportunities to take the lead, they were denied a goal, and the halftime break ended goalless.

After the break, the game initially became more evenly matched. In the 53rd minute, Fortuna had their first chance: Following a corner, Rasmussen shot from the edge of the penalty area, but put the ball well over the bar. Immediately afterward, in the 54th minute, Darmstadt produced a spectacular combination play, but Marco Richter was denied by Kastenmeier from a tight angle.

In the following minutes, Fortuna took slight control, but Darmstadt remained dangerous. In the 64th minute, the Lilies were rewarded for their efforts: Luca Marseiler passed to Isac Lidberg, who was prevented from finishing, but the ball bounced to Hiroki Akiyama, who fired a powerful shot into the far corner to give Darmstadt the lead. Shortly thereafter, the Lilies added another: A long diagonal ball from Pfeiffer slipped through to Fabian Nürnberger, who placed the ball in the net with a well-placed shot to make it 2-0 just 3 minutes later. Two minutes later, Hornby scored what appeared to be the third goal, but Pfeiffer was offside when he nodded the ball back – the SVD remained 2-0 up. For now.

In the 74th minute, the score finally came to 3-0: Hornby set up Marseiler, whose shot towards the far corner was parried by Kastenmeier, but Lidberg was there to tap in and score his sixth goal of the season in six games.

After that, not much happened, and the Lilies rewarded their convincing performance with a well-deserved away win.