Round 26, Mar 20-23
Hard fought round, with not many goals scored. Kaiserslautern was the “winner” in the sense that their scoreless draw at Karlsruhe put them in 2nd place. Although the match itself was hard fought and tense, not much really happened, so the result is about right.
Lautern moved into 2nd because Darmstadt was beaten in Düsseldorf. The 98ers were the better side in the first half, but wasted opportunities. Fortuna took a while to get going, but took their chances. It might be considered a lucky win, but sometimes you make your own luck.
Braunschweig pressed hard against leaders Ingolstadt, and was close to victory. The Schanzers have GK Ramazan Özcan, who had a brilliant match.
If St.Pauli goes down, this may be a key to why. The Hamburgers are dead last, but were on the verge of a point against Union. A road point in Berlin would have been a decent result. But then in the last minute, GK Himmelmann missed the ball on a backpass and gifted an empty goal to the hosts.
A tense relegation battle in München ended even between 1860 and Aalen. Neither side impressed, and a grubby bar fight was perhaps more descriptive. Points in the table, not style points were required.
Greuther Fürth is long removed from the fighting side that had a stint in the Bundesliga. The Greuther barely survived with a point at Aue in a tough relegation struggle. Erzgebirge probably should have won, but the visitor GK Hesl was in excellent form and kept the clean sheet,
FSV Frankfurt had a hard time making headway against Sandhausen, and was only able to equalize through a somewhat shady penalty.
Total attendance 163,583 (avg 18,176), 55.7% capacity, sellout in Karlsruhe, Berlin
1860 München - VfR Aalen 1:1 (0:0) 16,700 0:1 Quaner (59., Kaufmann) 1:1 Rodri (75., Vollmann) 1. FC Union Berlin - FC St. Pauli 1:0 (0:0) 21,717 * 1:0 Polter (89.) FSV Frankfurt - SV Sandhausen 1:1 (0:1) 5,094 0:1 Bouhaddouz (22., Linsmayer) 1:1 Kapllani (80., penalty, Grifo) Eintr. Braunschweig - FC Ingolstadt 04 0:0 (0:0) 20,700 Fortuna Düsseldorf - SV Darmstadt 98 2:0 (1:0) 28,658 1:0 Benschop (44., penalty, Bellinghausen) 2:0 Benschop (66., Bellinghausen) Karlsruher SC - 1. FC Kaiserslautern 0:0 (0:0) 27,556 * Erzgebirge Aue - SpVgg Greuther Fürth 0:0 (0:0) 7,600 1. FC Heidenheim - RasenB Leipzig 1:0 (0:0) 12,000 1:0 Niederlechner (51., Leipertz) 1. FC Nürnberg - VfL Bochum 1:2 (0:1) 25,558 0:1 Terrazzino (38., Terodde) 0:2 Terodde (64., Terrazzino) 1:2 Mlapa (70., Sylvestr) 1 FC Ingolstadt 04 26 13 10 3 40:22 +18 49 2 1. FC Kaiserslautern 26 12 10 4 34:23 +11 46 -------------------------------------------------------------------- 3 SV Darmstadt 98 (N) 26 11 12 3 34:19 +15 45 -------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 Karlsruher SC 26 11 11 4 34:19 +15 44 5 Fortuna Düsseldorf 26 10 9 7 40:35 +5 39 6 Eintracht Braunschweig (A) 26 11 5 10 32:29 +3 38 7 RasenBallsport Leipzig (N) 26 9 10 7 29:20 +9 37 8 VfL Bochum 26 7 14 5 43:39 +4 35 9 1. FC Heidenheim (N) 26 9 7 10 35:31 +4 34 10 FSV Frankfurt 26 9 7 10 35:40 -5 34 11 1. FC Nürnberg (A) 25 10 4 11 31:38 -7 34 12 1. FC Union Berlin 26 9 7 10 31:42 -11 34 13 SV Sandhausen 26 8 8 10 24:30 -6 32 14 SpVgg Greuther Fürth 26 6 11 9 25:30 -5 29 15 1860 München 26 6 8 12 35:40 -5 26 -------------------------------------------------------------------- 16 VfR Aalen 26 5 9 12 21:31 -10 24 -------------------------------------------------------------------- 17 Erzgebirge Aue 26 5 7 14 21:38 -17 22 18 FC St. Pauli 26 5 7 14 26:44 -18 22 1st line: Promotion to Bundesliga 2nd line: Playoff with 16th Bundesliga 3rd line: Playoff with no.3 of 3.Liga 4th line: Relegation to 3.Liga A = Absteiger just relegated N = Neuling just promoted