In the last test before the Christmas break, MSV Duisburg held Dutch first division side Fortuna Sittard to a 1-1 draw. What the coach says.

The final action of a match was extremely unfortunate for MSV Duisburg. Immediately before the final whistle, Namory Cissé, a 19-year-old talent from Austria who played for 1. FC Köln’s U19 team until the summer, scored the equaliser for a 1-1 final score.

Duisburg coach Torsten Ziegner, however, drew a positive conclusion in the end: “Sittard was the strongest opponent we played against in the preparation and it was our best game over 90 minutes,” he said about the draw against the Dutch first division team, which had started without six regular players but with Remy Vita (former FC Bayern München II), Umaro Embalo (ex-Benfica Lisbon) and Inigo Cordoba (former Athletic Bilbao). “A lot of things against the ball we did really well. Overall, we allowed two long-range shots in the first half, and apart from conceding a goal in injury time, no action in the second half.”

But the Zebras also presented themselves courageously with the ball, created opportunities time and again and deservedly took the 1-0 lead through Benjamin Girth. “I saw a totally homogeneous unit,” praised Ziegner. The goal conceded left him cold: “If we want to look in detail, it’s a shame that we didn’t play to nil, but I’d be more annoyed if it happened in the 90th on the first matchday against Saarbrücken.”

There will then be a final training session before the Christmas break at 11am on Friday before the next phase of preparation begins next Tuesday. However, the football coach was satisfied with the first part of the winter preparation: “We have been able to go through everything so far, even if it is not pleasant to train permanently in the rain or the cold. But preparation and league games are different shoes, we shouldn’t put too much stock in that. “