2. Bundesliga Friday Recap: Paderborn win battle of the 'teams looking in', Darmstadt blow away Sandhausen
Matchday 19 kicked off in Germany's second tier with two high-scoring affairs on Friday evening. Here are both matches, recapped:
SC Paderborn 4-1 Fortuna Düsseldorf
There were some worries about SC Paderborn's offense after failing to record a shot on target and only totaling one shot against VfB Stuttgart on Tuesday. If there were any worries, there aren't now. Paderborn handed Fortuna Düsseldorf their first defeat of 2023 while winning both of their games in the new year. They did it with a good start and deserved their lead with Marvin Pieringer's eighth goal of the season. Düsseldorf fought back and Julian Justvan conceded a penalty, which Rouwen Hennings dispatched. Fortuna captain Andre Hoffmann gave away a dangerous free-kick. After a deflected shot, Marvin Pieringer's effort hit the crossbar and the deflection fell to Jannis Heuer. The defender made no mistake, and Paderborn led three minutes after Hennings' equalizer. Michał Karbownik fouled Julian Justvan in the penalty area (yes, Justvan won a penalty after conceding one). Florent Muslija dispatched the third Paderborn goal. Even after having more rest, Fortuna looked leggy and Paderborn sealed all three points on 81 minutes with Robert Leipertz' ninth strike of the season.
SV Sandhausen 0-4 SV Darmstadt 98
Darmstadt are a team to watch in next week's DFB-Pokal match against Eintracht Frankfurt. Darmstadt's red-hot form continued. They easily dispatched Sandhausen, scoring three goals and conceding zero. They are rapidly increasing their automatic promotion chances with their fourth clean sheet in five 2. Bundesliga matches and the league's best defense continue to pour in goals, too. Matthias Honsen netted two first-half goals, pretty much putting the game out of sight. His first was a header from a corner on six minutes, and the second was a nice left-footed finish in the penalty area. Striker Oscar Wilhelmsson made sure of the victory with Darmstadt's third goal just 10 minutes into the second half. The visitors started to sit back and defend with a crucial cup match coming up, and Sandhausen started to attack. After creating 16 shots throughout the 90 minutes, Alois Schwartz' side couldn't find the net. Left-back Emir Karic added further misery to Sandhausen, bagging a fourth goal to Darmstadt's mass tally.
Keep an eye out on Saturday for reviews of: 1. FC Kaiserslautern vs. Holstein Kiel; Eintracht Braunschweig vs. 1. FC Heidenheim; SSV Jahn Regensburg vs. Arminia Bielefeld and Greuther Fürth vs. 1. FC Nürnberg.
The recaps continue on Sunday afternoon with the final games of matchday 19 being: 1. FC Magdeburg vs Karlsruhe; F.C. Hansa Rostock vs. Hamburger SV and FC St. Pauli vs. Hannover 96.