U21 starts 2025 victoriously

It was with great anticipation that the U21 of SV Darmstadt 98 stepped onto the artificial turf pitch on the academy grounds on Sunday for their first Hessen league game after the winter break. There was a tough challenge on the agenda against the experienced team from Marburg. “The course of the game wasn’t particularly advantageous for us either,” said Daniel Petrowsky after the final whistle of the game. After just four minutes of play, the Junglilien had to concede the goal and were 0-1 behind.

However, Petrovsky’s team had a quick answer. Mateo Zelic worked very well on the left side to the goal line and played the ball into the penalty area, where Henry Held only had to push it into the empty goal on 19 minutes. Then it was the Lilies who struck again from the left side: thanks to a good passing combination between Tim Arnold and Zelic, the ball fell for Othmane El Idrissi, who finally pulled it towards the goal and sank it under the crossbar with 35 minutes on the clock.

„I’m very happy with the first half. But we also knew that it was a very dangerous result because something can always happen. That’s why we wanted to keep pushing forward after the break and try to score the third goal relatively early,“ explained the U21 coach. No sooner said than done. SV 98 scored their third goal early in the second half. First, Viktor Grbic won the ball in the opponent’s half and then brought it sharply into the penalty area, where Nico Baier only had to keep his foot in and make it 3-1, 6 minutes into the half.

It then became a very wild game in which possession of the ball changed constantly. In the end, the Junglilien won 3-1, which meant they had a good start to the rest of the second half of the season.