Braunschweig strikes back late: 3-2 win in Dresden Two completely different halves make for an entertaining second division match. In the end, the visitors celebrate, and not entirely undeservedly so.

Thanks to a strong first half and a late goal, Eintracht Braunschweig has given itself some breathing room in the relegation battle in the 2nd Bundesliga.

The Lower Saxony team won 3-2 (2-0) at fellow relegation rivals Dynamo Dresden. Former Dresden player Christian Conteh (7th minute) gave the visitors an early lead in front of 31,150 spectators and made it 2-0 after 21 minutes. Jakob Lemmer (54th minute) and Nils Fröling (56th minute) scored twice in quick succession to equalize. Braunschweig’s Patrick Nkoa (78th minute), brought in by coach Heiner Backhaus from Aachen, scored to put Eintracht back in the lead, which also meant victory.

The hosts, for whom Stefan Kutschke had to replace Vincent Vermeij at short notice, initially struggled to find their rhythm. They didn’t create much going forward, but instead made some hair-raising mistakes in their own half. A whole series of such mistakes led to the opening goal. Added to this were repeated easy losses of possession due to passing errors. There was no organizing presence in midfield.

Braunschweig took advantage of this, grew in confidence, dominated the air and was more aggressive in the challenges. Johan Gomez (13th minute) missed a great chance to make it 2-0 when the Dynamo defense failed to clear the ball from their own penalty area.
Conteh did better a little later. This was preceded by a sluggish build-up play by the hosts. If Dresden goalkeeper Tim Schreiber hadn’t reacted strongly three times at the end of the first half, his team would have been trailing by a much larger margin.

In the second half, Dynamo suddenly played with pressure and intelligence. This impressed Braunschweig, who now made mistakes of their own. Before the 1-2, Ron-Thorben Hoffmann failed to hold onto a Lemmer shot, and the equalizer was preceded by mistakes in positioning.

As Dynamo pushed for the winning goal, Nkoa poked the ball over the Dresden goal line from the melee. Now Dynamo had to come back, opening up space for Eintracht counterattacks. Dynamo’s Jonas Oehmichen missed a great chance to equalize in stoppage time.

Hertha BSC squander lead – Another comeback for Fürth

Promotion contenders Hertha BSC suffered another setback in the 2nd Bundesliga after a stormy exchange of blows at relegation-threatened SpVgg Greuther Fürth. Five days after their botched home game against 1. FC Magdeburg (0-2), the team led by former Fürth promotion coach Stefan Leitl couldn’t manage more than a somewhat flattering 3-3 (2-1) draw in Franconia, despite leading 2-0 and 3-2.

At the start of the 16th matchday, Hertha nevertheless improved to sixth place in the table. Fürth are now 15th, just under a week after their hard-fought 2-2 draw in the Franconian derby against 1. FC Nürnberg.

After assists from Michaël Cuisance, former Fürth player Fabian Reese (33rd minute) and Luca Schuler (36th) scored twice for Berlin. Out of nowhere, Branimir Hrgota (42nd) made the game exciting again with a solo effort in front of 12,276 spectators.

Hrgota’s cross was volleyed home by Felix Klaus (58th minute) for his seventh goal of the season to level the score in a wild game. Schuler’s (62nd minute) curling shot put Berlin back in front, but Fürth, who were much more agile in the second half, countered with a goal from substitute Dennis Srbeny (81st minute).

Leitl and Heiko Vogel greeted each other warmly before kickoff, as they have known each other for a long time. When Leitl was still playing in midfield for FC Ingolstadt (2007 to 2013), Vogel was the assistant to then-coach Thorsten Fink.

On the pitch, it was initially only the enthusiastic Hertha players who set the tone against the league’s worst defense. Reese’s first supposed lead (26th minute) was subsequently disallowed by the video referee for offside. A few minutes later, however, Leitl’s team rewarded themselves.

The Franconians, for whom Vogel relied on his combative derby starting eleven, did not let up. Just three minutes after coming on as a substitute, striker Srbeny punished the visitors, who did too little to win after the break.