Late goals from Kerem Demirbay and Erwin Hoffer helped earn an entertaining 1-1 draw between Fortuna and Karlsruhe.

Good start for Fortuna

Fortuna picked up the game where they left off against Bochum, and their new brand of football under Frank Kramer had seemingly clicked. The opening ten minutes was an aerial bombardment of the Karlsruhe defence, and the team could barely get out of their own half. It was Kerem Demirbay who was pulling the strings in midfield but they were unable to test Dirk Orlishausen early on.

The first real chance came the way of the hosts and Dimitrij Nazarov, who was set free on the break by Jan Mauersberger. The Azerbaijan international sped forward before striking a curling effort from range which brought the best out of Michael Rensing in the Fortuna goal. Mauersberger himself went close from the resulting corner, as his headed effort glanced just past the far post.

Karlsruhe come back into the game

The tide had really turned in the latter part of the half and Karlsruhe were coming forward with much more confidence. Dominic Peitz found Erwin Hoffer late in the first period and the Austrian forward almost struck a hammer-blow against his former employers, although Rensing was equal to the task once more. The goalkeeper's impressive performance had kept his side level at the break, despite dominating for large parts.

It wasn't long into the second half before Fortuna finally found their shooting boots and forced Orlishausen into a set of fine saves. The veteran stopper made a quite remarkable save from Sercan Serarer's point-blank shot before reacting well to tip over Ilhas Bebou's smart flick-on from the resulting corner.

Both sides have their chances

Hoffer was causing plenty of problems against his old side and came closer still to opening the scoring. A fierce drive from Nazarov forced a quite incredible reaction stop out of Rensing, who had seen the ball late through the crowd of bodies in front of him. The rebound popped up nicely for Hoffer but a combination of poor contact and Christian Strohdiek's desperate defending kept them at bay.

Enrico Valentini also tried his luck and it was a speculative effort as well.The Italian whipped a free-kick from all of 30 yards but it had caught everyone off guard and only the post prevented Fortuna from falling behind, with Rensing and his defence looking on in hope rather than expectation.

Two goals late on but neither can be seperated

What Valentini could do, Demirbay did better. The Hamburger SV loanee rattled the bar against Bochum but went one better here. He was tasked with delivering from the near touchline, around 35 yards from goal, and produced a fantastic ball that had Karlsruhe all over the place. Crucially, neither side managed to get a touch on the ball and it drifted into the bottom corner to send the visitors on course for three points.

That was how it looked but was far from the case. Jimmy, as he was affectionately known at Fortuna, would finally get the goal he was so desperately craving and boy was he happy. Hoffer rounded the stranded Rensing and remained calm to slot home with his left foot, sending the home fans into rapture.

Neither team could grab another goal and score what would have been a late winner, leaving the game all square. In what was a very even contest, a draw would have kept both managers happy.

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About the author
Jonathan Walsh
SoccerSight IFA commentator. VAVEL deputy editor-in-chief/VAVEL Bundesliga editor-in-chief and writer. Email: [email protected]