Darmstadt’s promotion party was gate-crashed by St. Pauli with the Hamburg side inflicting a first home defeat of the season on the title favourites. Hamburg’s draw sees their chances of an automatic promotion spot all-but evaporate, while Sandhausen and Regensburg are in the bottom two following defeats.
Arminia Bielefeld 1-1 Greuther Fürth
Bielefeld missed the opportunity to extricate themselves away from the bottom end of the table by only taking a single point at home to Fürth. Bryan Lasme gave the hosts the lead in the 17th minute, but it didn’t last long with Branimir Hrgota levelling from the penalty spot nine minutes later after a foul by Jäkel on the striker. He kept his nerve twice after being made to retake his initial spot-kick following encroachment. The draw leaves the Arminen in the bottom three with three to play.
Hamburger SV 2-2 Paderborn
After losing to Magdeburg last weekend , Hamburg dropped more vital points with a 2-2 draw against Paderborn and the likelihood of them claiming an automatic promotion spot looks bleak. The play-off spot is now the best they can realistically hope for.
The first half ended with a flurry of action with HSV scoring on 39 minutes via Robert Glatzel’s 18th of the season only for the visitors to equalise four minutes later through Julian Justvan. Hamburg thought they had scored again before the break, but Moritz Heyer’s goal was ruled out for offside.
The Rothosen were however back in front four minutes into the second period when Sonny Kittel profited from an appalling mix up between defender Tobias Müller and keeper Jannik Huth. A stupid foul from Miro Muheim in the 72nd minute allowed Florent Muslija the chance to level from the penalty spot, and he did just that with his fifth goal in his last six matches.
Fortuna Düsseldorf 3-0 Holstein Kiel
Three goals in a nine-minute spell in the first half saw Fortuna to a comfortable 3-0 win over Kiel and sees their outside chance of the play-off berth kept alive.
Shinta Appelkamp headed in the opener after fifteen minutes with Andre Hoffmann producing an even better header four minutes later from Appelkamp’s delivery to make it 2-0. A Finn Bartels foul on Emmanuel Iyoha from behind gave the home side a penalty n 24 minutes, which Daniel Ginczek duly dispatched to put the result beyond doubt in the first 25 minutes.
Karlsruhe 2-1 Hannover
KSC moved above Hannover in the table with a 2-1 win at the BBBank Wildpark. Two goals in the opening 12 minutes saw the home side take control with Mikkel Kaufmann and Fabian Schleusener finding the back of the net.
Hannover did reply just before half-time through Louis Schaub, but there was no further scoring and Karlsruhe move up to eighth, one point ahead of the Niedersachsen side.
Hansa Rostock 2-0 Jahn Regensburg
A third win on the trot for Rostock sees them inching slowly clear of the drop zone, but it was a case of yet more woe for poor Regensburg, who find themselves bottom of the pile at the end of matchday 31.
A Kai Pröger goal in the first half and a John Verhoek header in the second did the damage and opens up a four-point advantage for Hansa over the bottom three.
Darmstadt 0-3 St. Pauli
Leaders Darmstadt could have sealed promotion on Saturday evening, but saw their party balloon burst by a ruthless St. Pauli.
Adam Dzwigala’s header right at the end of the first half put the Kiezkicker in front and the hosts were unable to fight back in the second period and conceded two further goals. Elias Saad made it 2-0 in the 57th minute with the final dagger inflicted by David Otto four minutes after he had come on as a substitute in the 85th minute. With HSV losing, St. Pauli still now have a slim chance of making it into third place.
The promotion party will need to be delayed now until next week’s trip to Hannover.
Heidenheim 0-0 Magdeburg
After beating Hamburg last week, Magdeburg once again frustrated a promotion chasing team with a 0-0 draw away at Heidenheim. The home side were unable to convert a host of chances and missed the chance to put the daylight between themselves and third place HSV that would have put them closer to automatic promotion.
Nürnberg 3-3 Kaiserslautern
There was a six-goal thriller at the Max Morlock Stadion with Nürnberg and Kaiserslautern finishing 3-3. The home side were denied a potentially vital win by a stunning late comeback from the Red Devils.
Mats Möller Daehli put der Klub into a fourth minute lead before Jens Castrop headed in a second ten minutes before the break. Terrence Boyd pulled one back for the visitors before half-time, but the two-goal cushion was restored by Kwado Duah just four minutes after the restart.
An 88th minute goal from Julian Niehues gave Kaiserslautern hope and then Nürnberg hearts were broken by a 95th minute goal from Philipp Klement.
Eintracht Braunschweig 2-1 Sandhausen
Sandhausen will spend the week bottom of the table after going down to a 2-1 loss at fellow strugglers Braunschweig. All the goals came in a manic end to the game with Swiss defender Saulo Decarli scoring the first goal in the 82nd minute. What looked to be a late winner was however cancelled out when Aleksandr Zhirov headed in on 88 minutes. The home side kept pressing though and were rewarded just a minute later when Anton-Leander Donkor did score the winner.
