Fortuna Düsseldorf has stormed to the top of the 2nd Bundesliga table and spoiled the debut of Eintracht Braunschweig’s interim manager Marc Pfitzner.

Fortuna won 4-1 (2-0) at the bottom-placed team to kick off the eleventh matchday and climbed to first place at least until Saturday. Braunschweig’s Lower Saxony rival VfL Osnabrück also suffered a heavy defeat, losing 4-0 (0-1) at Greuther Fürth.

Düsseldorf’s Christos Tzolis (12th) and Vincent Vermeij (14th) quickly put the game out of reach with an early double at Hamburger Straße. Florian Krüger’s (59th) goal was followed by Jamil Siebert’s (64th). Ao Tanaka (90.+8) set the final point. With 21 points, the team of coach Daniel Thioune is currently ahead of the Hamburg duo FC St. Pauli (20) and HSV (20), which is in action on Saturday.

Braunschweig, where Pfitzner replaced Jens Härtel on Monday, remain bottom of the table after their eighth defeat of the season with just five points.

The game started around 15 minutes late due to delays in the arrival of the 19,333 spectators. And Fortuna picked up where it left off against 1. FC Kaiserslautern, coming from behind 3-0 to win 4-3 – it took just under 15 minutes to decide the game.

In front of 9,978 spectators in Fürth, the game remained open for a little longer, but then it was all the more one-sided. Julian Green (45′) gave Fürth a well-deserved lead just before half-time. Immediately after the break, Armindo Sieb (47′) scored, before Dickson Abiama (74′) and Tim Lemperle (76′) stretched the lead.