1. FC Magdeburg messed up the second half of the Bundesliga season. At Fortuna Düsseldorf, the Elbestadt lost 2:3 (1:2) in front of 29,433 spectators on Friday evening. Moritz Broni Kwarteng (6th, 59th) scored for FCM, Fortuna’s David Kownacki (5th) missed a penalty kick, but scored twice (9th, 35th), Shinta Appelkamp (84th) marked the winning goal.
Magdeburg started in the usual flexible 4-3-3 system with two newcomers: Daniel Heber (most recently Rot-Weiss Essen) defended on the right flank, while Luc Castaignos, who was recently without a club, occupied the center of the attack. Perennial favorite Andreas Müller was only on the bench, Julian Rieckmann played in midfield for him.
The game started with a moment of shock for the Elbe city-dwellers. After just two minutes, Düsseldorf’s Kownacki broke through and was stopped by Cristiano Piccini at the expense of a penalty – the Italian saw a yellow card and Kownacki missed. In return, after a rush in Fortuna’s defense, Kwarteng scored for Magdeburg’s lead. But the FCM then showed old weaknesses: Kownacki hit a corner after a head.
The rest of the first half didn’t come close to that score. Magdeburg tried to gain security through possession of the ball, but also repeatedly offered gaps that the strong Fortuna used to counterattack. The guests found it difficult to set up their own game: too slow, too imprecise, too little overview. Fortuna intercepted an unnecessary diagonal ball from Heber and the free-standing Kownacki (35th) turned the game around.
Coach Christian Titz made a change during the break, bringing Müller and the more attacking Mohammed El Hankouri into midfield. Captain Amara Condé and Rieckmann stayed outside. That didn’t change much in the game at first, because the Fortunes started pressing earlier and wanted to force a decision. Magdeburg still didn’t get into the dangerous zones and found it extremely difficult to generate deals. FCM needed three attempts to equalize: Castaignos hit the post, Kwarteng’s first follow-up shot was parried by the goalkeeper, but the second follow-up shot was in.
Fortuna then pushed for the renewed lead, set FCM in its half and created a few chances. Matthias Zimmermann’s connection (81′) scraped Daniel Heber off the line, but after an early loss of the ball by Kwarteng Appelkamp scored the lead again. Magdeburg ran after that, but couldn’t get another goal.
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