Darmstadt 98 longs for the long winter break. Despite the many injuries, the team around Captain Holland fought for a draw in front of almost 30,000 at the sold-out Millerntor at FC St. Pauli.
Hamburg (dpa/lhe) - For Torsten Lieberknecht "the table situation doesn't matter", but the series of SV Darmstadt 98 speaks for itself. The lilies continue to present themselves as a very hot candidate for promotion - the 1-1 (0-0) on Saturday evening at FC St. Pauli was the 13th unbeaten game in a row in the 2nd Bundesliga. Sunday's game between SC Paderborn and Hamburger SV will show whether coach Lieberknecht's team will remain at the top of the table.
Frank Ronstadt (60th minute) gave Darmstadt the lead. Lukas Daschner equalized nine minutes later. "I get the ball on the outside left, go one-on-one, pull in and look for the finish," the 25-year-old former HSV player described the scene of his remarkable goal to make it 1-0 in an interview with Sport1. "I'm delighted he was in it. It was definitely one of my best goals."
Looking at the situation after the 14th matchday, Ronstadt was quick to make the usual statements from Darmstadt: "We don't look at the table, but from game to game. We take every point we get and then look again to the next game."
Sport director Carsten Wehlmann also "didn't want to talk about the future" at this point in time. When asked when Darmstadt announced promotion as a goal, he said: "We can't formulate this claim from the start. The placements in recent years have been good, but there have also been difficult situations. With the opportunities we have , let's try to make the best of it."
The last defeat of the lilies was on the first day of play at 0:2 in Regensburg. Even undeterred by personnel problems, the former first division team remains stable. In Hamburg there was even a space left on the score sheet and in Alexander Brunst and Steve Kroll two goalkeepers sat on the bench. New signing Keanan Bennetts was out due to a foot infection.
In front of 29,562 spectators in the sold-out Millerntor Stadium, Lieberknecht surprised by sending central defender Patric Pfeiffer into attack in the first few minutes. Later, Pfeiffer was called back to his role as central defender against the increasingly dangerous Hanseatic League. "We saw in St. Pauli's last games that we could use Patric up front. But we didn't manage to put him in the limelight," explained the head coach. "It is important that we have a new component in our team with so many players missing."
In the end, the 49-year-old was happy about the performances of both teams: "I think everyone who watched the game here and on the TV saw a great evening of football." Lilien will continue against Hannover 96 on Friday (6.30 p.m. / Sky). But first it's time for the team around captain Fabian Holland to regenerate. "The boys are exhausting themselves and know that the games are the highlights. The training week is only there for therapy," said Lieberknecht.
