Magdeburg and Kiel share spoils in six-goal thriller

Since this is the last home game before the December 21st celebrations, Magdeburg were in a festive mood for the club's 60th anniversary. Petrik Sander's team boosted their survival hopes with back-to-back wins over Nürnberg and Hertha BSC before their last home game of 2025.

Mateusz Zukowski, who scored a brace in the 3-0 victory over Nürnberg, nearly put the hosts in front inside the first ten minutes. The bottom-placed team limited Holstein Kiel’s chances until Lubambo Musonda, who will join Zambia’s squad for AFCON after this match, fouled Niklas Niehoff inside the penalty box.

David Zec scored the penalty-kick straight down the middle to seemingly put the visitors ahead at the break. However, the resurgent Magdeburg side had other ideas. First, Noah Pesch scored a stunning goal in the first minute of injury-time.

A couple of minutes later, Baris Atik stunned Kiel with an acrobatic effort after Jonas Krumrey’s unconvincing clearance from Musonda’s delivery. The first two 2. Bundesliga games of matchday 16 had 11 goals, but the first three goals of Saturday afternoon fixtures were all scored in the relegation six-pointer between Magdeburg and Kiel.

And that wasn’t all. Kiel were back in the game with another penalty-kick at the midpoint of the second-half for a handball by Marcus Mathisen. Zec hit it to the left side this time, but the outcome was similar.

Remarkably, Zec would then concede a penalty-kick when he elbowed Tobias Müller. Mateusz Zukowski scored the resulting penalty to put the host ahead once again with only seven minutes left to play.  However, Kiel salvaged a late point through substitute Steven Skrzybski. The captain waited for the perfect moment to score his first goal of the season in the 92nd minute.

Kiel’s miserable 2025 will conclude at home against newly-promoted Dynamo Dresden in next weekend’s Topspiel. Magdeburg will face promotion hopefuls Kaiserslautern away from home.