Darmstadt 98 has corrected the false start of the season in the 2nd Bundesliga. The jubilation after the hard-fought win against Sandhausen is great.
Darmstadt (dpa/lhe) - Second division soccer team SV Darmstadt 98 celebrated their first win in the second game of the season. Fourth in the table last season won 2-1 (1-1) against SV Sandhausen on Friday evening and thus showed the reaction required by coach Torsten Lieberknecht to the defeat at the start of the season in Regensburg. In front of 13,620 spectators in the sold-out Böllenfalltor stadium, Braydon Manu (9th) and Marvin Mehlem (55th) scored the goals for the Hessians. Aleksandr Zhirov (24th) scored for Sandhausen to equalize in the meantime.
"We have corrected the unfortunate start to the season and are of course happy about it. It doesn't get any better than that," said Darmstadt striker Manu and gave the motto: "We want to build on the impressive previous season. That's why we have to continue working now and can't be on the success."
The home side set the tone from the start. After a misunderstanding between Sandhaus Dennis Diekmeier and Tom Trybull, Manu used the second good opportunity for an early lead with a shot from the left side of the penalty area into the top right corner. But that didn't last long: in the middle of the first half, Zhirov scored a surprising equalizer for the Palatinate after a free kick with a well-placed shot in the right corner. "It was a very strange thing. We could have defended it better," commented Lilien captain Fabian Holland on the scene.
Before the break, the more active Darmstadt players were lucky that a shot by Janik Bachmann (38th) from six meters was too unplaced. After the change, Mehlem put the Hessians back in the lead after a remarkable one-two with Manu. "Of course that's good, especially with a win. You can build on that," said the goalscorer. In the last half hour, the game became more divided. The toughness of the duel increased, there were hardly any dangerous situations - that's how the hosts cheered in the end.
