Magdeburg beats Kaiserslautern and jumps to third place

1. FC Magdeburg made up valuable ground in the race for the promotion places in the 2nd Bundesliga. Against the direct competition from 1. FC Kaiserslautern, they managed a 2:0 (2:0). Baris Atik (29th, 43rd) scored both Magdeburg goals. Magdeburg thus jumped to third place, six points behind leaders HSV.

"We played to nil, didn't concede much. You could tell from the start that the team wanted to win," said FCM coach Christian Titz on Sky. The coach did not want to say anything about promotion. "The last six games will decide. We want to continue on our chosen path," said Titz.

Double-packer Atik was exhausted after the game: "I threw everything into it, I couldn't do any more," said the Palatinate native about his substitution. The win was fine.

Titz opted for Alexander Ahl-Holmström up front against the powerful visitors, with Martijn Kaars withdrawing slightly. Tobias Müller replaced the injured Daniel Heber (thigh) in the back three. Both teams relied on pressing and attacking play right from the start. Kaars missed a shot early on (1st), while Dominik Reimann made saves from Marlon Ritter (11th) and Kenny Redondo (12th) at the other end.

Deserved Magdeburg lead

Magdeburg repeatedly used Ahl-Holmström for clearances, but failed to put the subsequent shots on target. The visitors set up Magdeburg well so that the build-up play from the FCM half did not work as usual. Both teams were dangerous on the counter-attack, with Simon Simoni just managing to defuse a shot from Livan Burcu (21'). The Lauter goalkeeper was then powerless to stop Atik's shot from an acute angle. Shortly before the break, Atik added to his tally when his ball flew past Ahl-Holmström - but into the goal.

Kaiserslautern came out of the break with momentum and pressed for the equalizer, but first had to prevent the third FCM goal against Burcu (48'). Although the visitors lacked goal threat, they kept FCM away from the Lauter penalty area. Magdeburg were only rarely able to break free decisively and there were no longer periods of possession to calm the game down.

Nearly no goal threat from the visitors

After a triple substitution by the visitors, there was some fuss after Nico Elvedi fouled Atik and then kicked him on the thigh. "I didn't want to be provoked. I was expecting a card," said Atik. The game then calmed down again, however, and Magdeburg now had more of the play again. However, FCM also failed to decide the game. A 2-on-1 counter-attacking opportunity from Bryan Teixeira ended without a finish. The game remained contested into stoppage time, but the visitors were simply too harmless.