Hertha forced to take a point in Bielefeld
Head coach Felix Magath made just the one enforced change from his side’s 2-0 win at home to Stuttgart last weekend: Marco Richter came in for the suspended Vladimír Darida. The home side had to make a late change to their lineup, as Amos Pieper was replaced in the warm-ups by Nathan de Medina.
Selke with two chances to give Hertha the lead
Hertha looked to take control of the game from the very start, and a first sight of goal came early on: a Peter Pekarík cross was headed towards goal by Suat Serdar, but Stefan Ortega made the save (3’). The game was a scrappy one throughout the first half; many fouls and other stoppages meant the game never got into a real flow. The middle of the half saw Hertha have a couple of big chances to score, both of which came through Davie Selke within a minute. Our number 7 first latched onto a cross from Marvin Plattenhardt and headed down towards goal, but Ortega was there to jump and prevent the opener with his leg (23’). Almost immediately after, Selke had a shot towards the near post which Bielefeld’s ‘keeper got down to and held well. Over the course of the half, the Blue-Whites were the better team, standing firm defensively and letting little through. There were a lack of chances at both ends towards the end of the half, and referee Deniz Aytekin blew his whistle on a goalless first 45.
Equaliser in added time for Bielefeld
The second half saw Hertha’s hosts start on the offensive - Burak İnce fired off target from a Gonzalo Castro cross, before the veteran Castro himself fired over from inside the area (47’, 51’). It was in this period, though, that Hertha made their breakthrough! Yet another wonderful, pinpoint delivery from Plattenhardt, this time from a corner, found Lucas Tousart in space inside the penalty area, and he had the easy job of heading home and starting the jubilant celebrations (54’). Almost immediately after the game restarted, though, drama, as referee Aytekin was called to the VAR monitor to look at a possible penalty for Bielefeld. After review, he adjudged that Pekarík did not foul his man and no penalty was given (58’)! With the 1-0 lead supporting them, Hertha were confident in their defending on the pitch, but did have a big let-off when substitute Janni Serra’s cross narrowly evaded everybody on 75 minutes. With 12 minutes of normal time to go, U19s striker Luca Wollschläger came into the game for Selke, and could’ve made the win safe in the 89th minute as he was clean through on goal, but decided instead to square the ball to fellow substitute Maxi Mittelstädt, who also failed to shoot, and the chance petered out from there – frustration! That missed opportunity was punished just two minutes later, as Joakim Nilsson headed home for Bielefeld to equalise (90+1’). Wollschläger then could not stretch far enough to get on the end of a low Mittelstädt cross in added time (90+3’), meaning the game ended all square. In addition, the point VfB Stuttgart earned late on meant that even a Hertha win would not have secured Blue-White survival today. The next chance to do that is with a win at home to Mainz 05 next Saturday (18:30 CEST) – get your tickets to the Olympiastadion and support our team!
DSC Arminia Bielefeld: Ortega Moreno; Ramos, Pieper, Nilsson, Laursen (72’ Bello); Prietl (C) (66’ Krüger), Kunze, Wimmer, Castro (83’ Hack), Okugawa; Ince (66’ Serra)
Hertha BSC: Lotka; Pekarík, Boyata (C), Kempf, Plattenhardt (71’ Bjørkan); Ascacíbar, Tousart, Richter (78‘ Gechter), Prince (71‘ Stark), Serdar (85‘ Mittelstädt); Selke (78‘ Wollschläger)
Goals: 0-1 Tousart (55‘), 1-1 Nilsson (90+1’)
Referee: Deniz Aytekin
Yellow cards: de Medina, Wimmer, Kunze; Richter
Attendance: 27,000