Leon Goretzka, a native of Bochum, was cheering in the stands wearing a VfL jersey and Herbert Grönemeyer, a former Bochum resident, wished him luck on the internet. The sympathy for VfL Bochum’s relegation match against Fortuna Düsseldorf was prominent – but fate, which is notoriously unimpressed by such things, was not kind to the troubled Bundesliga club.
An own goal by striker Philipp Hofmann in the 13th (!) minute put Bochum behind 0:1 early on, which Düsseldorf increased dramatically in the 64th minute through Felix Klaus (0:2) and in the 72nd minute through Yannik Engelhardt (0:3). In the end, Bochum suffered a sensational 0:3 (0:1) defeat against second division club Düsseldorf.
The prospect of Bochum being able to play in the Bundesliga for a fourth year in a row is now zero. Düsseldorf, on the other hand, has the best chance of returning to the Bundesliga after four years in the second division. But the Düsseldorf team still has to make it perfect in the return match on Monday evening in their home arena on the Rhine (8.30 p.m. on Sat1 and Sky).
It was clear to see how much self-confidence Bochum had lost as a result, having finished the regular season with a 0:5 defeat against Bayer Leverkusen and a 1:4 defeat at Werder Bremen, and slipping into the relegation zone at the very last minute. What little faith they had left will now be lost for good in the return match. Düsseldorf was the fourth strongest home team in the last second division season, while Bochum was the weakest away team in the Bundesliga with ten points.
Düsseldorf had entered the game with the confidence of 14 games without defeat
Bochum against Düsseldorf is a duel between a squad with a market value of 60 million and a squad with a market value of 40 million. And it also took place against the backdrop of the fact that since the relegation play-offs were reintroduced in 2009, the Bundesliga team has triumphed twelve times and the second division team only three times. But this time the situation seemed different, because while Fortuna was in great harmony after 14 second division games without defeat, there was a lot wrong at VfL: the coach was sacked seven weeks ago, eight defeats in the last twelve Bundesliga games and shortly before the relegation play-off, the goalkeeper Manuel Riemann, who was considered too choleric, was released.
:The fear of collapse
There is a lot of unrest at VfL Bochum ahead of the relegation duels against Fortuna Düsseldorf. The substitute goalkeeper Luthe would prefer if the regular goalkeeper Riemann played. But the club has suspended him.
Consequently, Andreas Luthe, 37, who returned from Bochum in January, was in goal on Thursday and looked unhappy in the 13th minute when Düsseldorf’s Christos Tzolis shot a corner onto the outside post, from where the ball bounced off Bochum’s Hofmann and from there just over the line. This was the golden goal that made it 0-1 at half-time, and it didn’t help that Bochum had dominated the first half.
Not only was Riemann missing from the hosts, Riemann’s friend and captain Anthony Losilla was surprisingly only on the bench (coach Heiko Butscher: “Sporting decision!”) and was only substituted in in the 63rd minute. Bochum had not done badly up to this point, but they lacked the power to break through. In the 64th minute, the Bundesliga slipped further out of sight. Second division top scorer Tzolis played a Düsseldorf counterattack so precisely into the feet of his colleague Klaus that he made it 2-0, painting Fortuna’s Bundesliga dreams in bright colors. When Engelhardt made it 3-0 with a follow-up shot, VfL keeper Luthe had let the ball bounce forward when parrying a free kick from Tzolis. After the final whistle, the only thing you could hear in the Ruhrstadion was the singing of the Fortuna fans.