Bundesliga playoffs: Fortuna prevails!

Fortuna Düsseldorf has gained promotion to the Bundesliga after the 2-2 draw with Hertha BSC. In that sense justive prevails, as Hertha should have been automatically relegated. Fortuna had won the 1st match in Berlin 2-1, so was favored in the rematch at home. And things started out with a bang as Max Beister rocketed a shot into the corner from distance, giving Fortuna the lead. To Hertha’s credit, they didn’t fold, and fought their way back into the match. Anis Ben-Hatira has been their workhorse recently, and he scored again off a nice header. From then on, Hertha looked the better team, having more of the possesion. Fortuna’s attacks were limited to rare forays, although they did create a couple of huge chances, when Beister broke through and hammered a shot that brought out a great save, but the trailing Düsseldorfer made like a wanker and not only missed the open net, but fell on his ass as well. Hertha created some good chances of their own, a nice turn around shot from Ronny brought a brilliant parry from Ratajczak.

The second half clearly seemed to go Fortuna’s way. For one thing, Ben-hatira made another dick move and got his ass rightfully tossed. So Hertha was down to 10 men, and was soon losing after Jovanovic scored. To Hertha’s credit, they didn’t give up and tried valiently to press. Despite having a man advantage, Fortuna stupidly decided to defend and were duly punished near the end when Raffael scored. This led to anxious moments, as there was to be at 7 minutes of extra-time tacked on due to interruptions from firebombs being thrown from the crowd. In fact, in extra time, Fortuna fans stormed the field to celebrate. Evidently they interpreted a whistle from the ref as the end, but it was only a foul. This led to a 20 minute delay until order was restored and the match finished out. Overall, Düsseldorf deserves promotion, but they certainly made things more difficult than needed. Hertha and Köln get to continue their argument over who is the worst managed club in Germany down in the 2.Liga…

Fortuna Düsseldorf     -     Hertha BSC Berlin    2:2 (1:1)    51,000

                      1:0  Beister (1., Ilsö)
                      1:1  Ben-Hatira (22., Ronny)
                      2:1  Jovanovic (59., Bröker)
                      2:2  Raffael (85., Ramos)

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