dhe Hamburg They missed a big opportunity in the promotion race with a shock defeat to bottom-placed VfL Osnabrück. Hamburg lost 1:2 (1:1) in the end in the Volksparkstadion, which was packed with 57,000 spectators. It was the first defeat in the second game under new coach Steffen Baumgart. Thanks to mistakes in the competition, HSV was able to leave Holstein Kiel behind and close the gap on league leader FC St. Pauli.
But HSV once again missed a good opportunity in the promotion race. Osnabrueck With his goal in the 6th minute, Lukas Kunze made it clear from the start that Hamburg had a difficult task ahead of them. Robert Glatzel (45+2/foul penalty) tied it. Osnabrück was outnumbered from the 76th minute onwards, but shortly before the end Michael Cuisance (89th/penalty foul) scored to give Osnabrück a surprising victory.
The Lower Saxony team got off to an optimal start. Cuisance sensitively sent a free kick to Kunze, who volleyed the ball into the goal at the far post. It took a while for HSV to recover from the shock, but its performance improved. Glatzel scored from a penalty before half-time.
HSV became more dominant in the second half, Ransford Königsdörffer (52nd) missed the first goal after a cross from Jonas Meffert. Osnabrück's Gyamfi saw yellow and red in the 76th minute. After a foul by Ignace van der Brempt on Robert Tesche, Cuisance achieved a surprising victory from the penalty spot shortly before the end of the match.
Point division in Paderborn
The sc Paderborn A big step forward was lost in the race for promotion. The East Westphalian team had to be content with sharing points in a 0-0 draw against 1. FC Magdeburg on Sunday.
With a victory, coach Lukas Kwasniok's team would have reached fourth place and, therefore, its best position of the season so far. The Magdeburg team was winless in its sixth second division match against Paderborn.
In front of 13,566 spectators at the Paderborn Arena, the guests, who managed to please FC Schalke 04 with a 3-0 win last weekend, showed themselves to be the most tenacious rivals expected, who showed a stable defensive performance and only helped Paderborn. The team for a long time left few chances. In the final phase, guest player Luca Schuler received a red card for foul play. Despite some good opportunities, the home team could not score the winning goal.
SV Wehen Wiesbaden tricked SV Elversberg with birthday boy Horst Steffen and gained more room for maneuver in the relegation fight. In the duel between the promoted teams, the Hessians won 3-0 (1-0) against the Sarreños and are now six points ahead of 16th place in relegation. Elversberg remains in eleventh place in the middle of the table. Thijmen Goppel (44th minute), Hyun-Ju Lee (49th) and John Iredale (84th) scored the guests' goals in front of 8,071 spectators at the Arena an der Kaiserlinde.
In the first round, both teams largely neutralized each other. There were hardly any possibilities. It was unfortunate for Elversberg that the defense had to be changed again after Arne Sicker was out injured (24'). As a result, the guests had a little more play. Goppel took advantage of a counterattack to take the lead shortly before the break, which Lee extended with a beautiful shot into the corner of the goal just four minutes after the restart.
Elversberg seemed inhibited. The quick change game was barely successful. Coach Steffen saw even more opportunities from the guests on his 55th birthday, but Ivan Prtajin (55/63) missed. Substitute Iredale did better later on. For the Hessians it was the first away victory since the beginning of November 2023 and the first in Elversberg since August 2006, then in the regional league.