All 3 bottom clubs win to heat up the relegation battle, and the promotion contenders struggle but keep pace.
Eintr. Braunschweig - SpVgg Greuther Fürth 0:0 (0:0) 20,450
FC St. Pauli - 1. FC Union Berlin 2:1 (0:1) 19,000
0:1 Karl (32., Belaid)
1:1 M. Kruse (59., Naki)
2:1 Bartels (90. + 2, Schachten)
Fortuna Düsseldorf - FSV Frankfurt 1:0 (0:0) 25,107
1:0 Jovanovic (55., Ilsö)
Energie Cottbus - Hansa Rostock 0:1 (0:0) 12,100
0:1 Peitz (90., Blum)
Alemannia Aachen - VfL Bochum 2:0 (2:0) 17,505
1:0 Odonkor (26., Uludag)
2:0 Streit (39.)
1860 München - MSV Duisburg 2:1 (0:0) 14,400
1:0 Vallori (58.)
1:1 Jula (69., Baljak)
2:1 Lauth (71., Rakic)
Erzgebirge Aue - SC Paderborn 07 0:2 (0:1) 7,230
0:1 Rupp (45. + 1, Proschwitz)
0:2 Proschwitz (68., Rupp)
Eintracht Frankfurt - FC Ingolstadt 04 1:1 (0:0) 38,000
1:0 Idrissou (49., Rechtsschuss, Rode)
1:1 Akaichi (71., Rechtsschuss, Leitl)
Karlsruher SC - Dynamo Dresden 2:0 (0:0) 17,489
1:0 Rada (56.)
2:0 Krebs (76., Staffeldt)
1 SpVgg Greuther Fürth 30 19 7 4 67:22 +45 64
2 Eintracht Frankfurt (A) 30 18 8 4 69:30 +39 62
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3 Fortuna Düsseldorf 30 15 12 3 58:29 +29 57
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4 FC St. Pauli (A) 30 16 8 6 50:31 +19 56
5 SC Paderborn 07 30 15 10 5 47:34 +13 55
6 1860 München 30 15 5 10 53:41 +12 50
7 1. FC Union Berlin 30 12 6 12 47:50 -3 42
8 Eintracht Braunschweig (N) 30 9 14 7 34:31 +3 41
9 Dynamo Dresden (N) 30 10 7 13 45:49 -4 37
10 VfL Bochum 30 9 5 16 35:50 -15 32
11 MSV Duisburg 30 8 7 15 36:44 -8 31
12 FC Ingolstadt 04 30 6 13 11 38:50 -12 31
13 Energie Cottbus 30 7 10 13 26:43 -17 31
14 Erzgebirge Aue 30 7 10 13 27:47 -20 31
15 FSV Frankfurt 30 6 12 12 36:56 -20 30
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16 Karlsruher SC 30 7 6 17 30:57 -27 27
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17 Hansa Rostock (N) 30 5 11 14 28:48 -20 26
18 Alemannia Aachen 30 4 13 13 27:41 -14 25
St.Pauli was in a tough battle with Berlin, and through grit and determination fought back and maintain their hope for promotion. But despite the dramatic injury time winner, this match will be forever remembered as the “Marius Ebbers” match. Think about all the wankers that play football, and then there’s guys like Ebbers. With only 10 minutes left, and St.Pauli desperately trying to win the match, Ebbers headed in the game winner. Well, at least the ref allowed the goal. But with Union players protesting, the ref went over and talked to Ebbers, who admitted that he handled the ball. So no goal. Obviously there was a bit of justice that St.Pauli did pull off a win a few minutes later, but it’s nice to know that there are some honest players out there. That’s cool, plus the added benefit that we don’t have to listen to Union whine ad nauseum like the Irish did about France…
Fortuna Düsseldorf had a hard time against a disciplined FSV Frankfurt fighting for survival. Fortuna deserved the win, which keeps them on course for promotion, but FSV deserves some kudos as well.
An absolutely massive win for Rostock, against ex-GDR rival Cottbus. The match itself was a drab, grim and boring as the ex-Commie state, balls being kicked in every direction except to a teammate, fans wanting to drink rubbing alcohol in desperation since the vodka had run out, and Erich Hoenecker making a speech…OK, it wasn’t quite that bad, but it was a horrible match that nobody wanted to win. However, Hansa stole the points at the whistle, and this is absolutely massive, as there is still hope on the Ostsee.
Aachen thoroughly dominated against a crap Bochum side. They’re still propping up the table, but there is a bit of hope. They could have turned this into a rout, as Bochum was just phoning it in, but ended up hitting the woodwork a few times.
Karlsruhe also put in a good performance and deservedly won against Dresden. Dynamo didn’t show much, and with KSC showing drive and determination, it was just a matter of time before the Badeners broke through. They’ve got a chance of sneaking into 15th and saving themselves outright, so the relegation battle is far from over.
Paderborn got a nice win in Aue to keep pace with their promotion rivals. SCP controlled the match nicely, inflicting Erzgebirge’s first home defeat of the year. Aue has had a few flabby performances recently, and they need to be careful, since the relegation zone is gaining ground on them.
1860 got a basically worthless win against Duisburg. The Lions had their chances to play in the promotion race, but blew it, so this wins doesn’t mean much to them. For Duisburg, they’ve obviously improved, but still have to worry about relegation.
Eintracht Frankfurt missed a chance to go top, and like everybody else in the restart, they found Ingolstadt to be a tough nut to crack. In this particular case though it was the Schanzer’s Austrian GK Ramazan Özcan who brought tears of frustration to the Eintracht attackers. He was brilliant and stopped just about everything to keep Ingolstadt’s relegation buffer intact.