Thursday, May 06, 2021
Undefeated five times in a row
Hertha wins down from the relegation zone
The quarantine does not seem to have weakened Hertha BSC. In the second game after that, the capitals remain undefeated and leave the relegation places. The battle for relegation will be really exciting at the end of the season, four clubs are only separated by a single point.
A completely renewed team from Hertha BSC celebrated an enormously important victory in the relegation battle of the Bundesliga in the second game after the forced Corona break. After a total rotation with nine changes in the starting line-up against SC Freiburg, the Berlin team won 3-0 (2-0) and climbed from 17th to 14th place.
Krzysztof Piatek (13th), Peter Pekarik (22nd) and Nemanja Radonjic (85th) scored the goals for the capital city, in which only goalkeeper Alexander Schwolow and midfielder Matteo Guendouzi from the starting eleven of the first catch-up game on Monday at Mainz 05 (1 : 1) Have been there from the start. Freiburg found no means against the new Hertha and after the fourth away defeat in a row, they are in ninth place in the no man’s land of the league.
Dardai took a high risk with the high fluctuation, which meant a Bundesliga record for Hertha and is actually only made before unimportant games. But because of the great stress caused by the many games every three days, Dardai wanted to avoid “five muscle injuries,” as the Hertha coach said before kick-off at DAZN.
Was it the surprise effect or the great enthusiasm of the Berliners – Hertha got along well with the record rotation and the associated system changes and, above all, presented itself extremely effectively. With the first chance, Pole Piatek poked the ball past the surprised guest keeper Florian Müller into the net. Shortly afterwards, Pekarik headed his third goal of the season after not having scored in years.
Cologne slips to relegation rank
Shortly before the change, Dardai had to react again in terms of personnel. Guendouzi hobbled into the cabin with a suspected metatarsal fracture supported by two supervisors, but Sami Khedira came. The former national player brought calm to the actions of the Berliners, which allowed only little dangerous actions by the guests.
At the beginning of the second half, Freiburg put more pressure on and pushed for the next goal. But Hertha had secure support in Schwolow as in Mainz. The former Freiburg rescued with a great foot defense against Nicolas Höfler.
In the middle of the second half, Dardai made use of the luxury of replacing the fresh attackers Matheus Cunha and Jhon Cordoba. With the two strikers, the game shifted more towards the Freiburg goal, in which keeper Müller had to save several times. Radonjic made everything clear with his first Bundesliga goal.
The last of three catch-up games is already on the program on Wednesday at Schalke 04 (6 p.m.), before that Arminia Bielefeld (6 p.m. / both Sky and in the live ticker at ntv.de) will come to the Olympiastadion. In the fight against relegation, Hertha in 14th place with 30 points and 1. FC Köln in 17th place are separated by only one point, but the Berliners have played one game less. The clubs from Bremen and Bielefeld tied with the old lady slipped to ranks 15 and 16.
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