A goal in each half from Collin Quaner and Nejmeddin Daghfous gave Aalen the win over a Düsseldorf side that struggled to create chances and were unable to finish the few that they did create.
This game saw the coming together of 2 teams at opposite ends of the table, Aalen were bottom of the 2. Bundesliga and were 5 points off safety whilst Düsseldorf sat 2nd in the table, 2 points off leaders FC Ingolstadt. Stephan Ruthenbeck’s side were hoping to end a run of 3 straight defeats and it appeared that the fans haven’t given up hope yet as the Scholz Arena was packed out for this tie. Ruthenbeck made 3 changes for today’s game with Andrew Hainault, who scored 2 own goals in his last game, moving to the bench along with Fabio Kaufmann whilst Sascha Mockenhaupt didn’t even make the bench.
A quiet start to the game in the opening 10 minutes was ended when Aalen countered with the ball at Quaner’s feet, the German slid the ball to his left into the path of the onrushing Jurgen Gjasula who was then 1-on-1 with the keeper but Lars Unnerstall saved well. From the resulting corner they had a penalty claim turned down but the Aalen players didn’t have to wait long to take the lead as just 2 minutes later right-back Philemon Ofosu-Ayeh made a dangerous run down the right before finding Quaner in space inside the box. The big striker was able to control before firing past a helpless Unnerstall.
This was followed by another disappointing quiet spell in which neither side threatened with both wasting decent opportunities like set pieces because of poor deliveries. In the 30th minute Düsseldorf’s Jonathan Tah lost the ball on the edge of his own box to Nejmeddin Daghfous who was then subsequently brought down by the Hamburg loanee giving Aalen a dangerous opportunity on the edge of the box. Gjasula stepped up and in contradiction to his earlier deliveries this was one was nearly perfect smacking the corner of crossbar and post.
Arne Feick was then booked for a late challenge on Michael Liendl and from the resulting costless-kick Julian Schauerte put in a cross that Tah turned goal wards but Daniel Bernhardt in the Aalen goal pushed the effort away for a corner. Soon after Christian Gartner was booked for fouling Aaalen’s Andreas Hofmann. Düsseldorf had one final chance of the half in the 44th minute when a cross looked destined for Charlison Benschop in the box before he went down under pressure from Feick. No penalty was given and the ball ran on to Liendl but before he could control he was dispossessed and the danger was cleared.
Düsseldorf came out fighting at the start of the 2nd half, within one minute they had a costless kick from Gartner saved and a minute after that they nearly struck on the break. Joel Pohjanpalo had the ball on the left hand side and sent a wonderful diagonal ball straight to Benschop whose first shot was straight at the keeper before the rebound came back to him but he put his effort just wide.
Pohjanpalo then had a chance of his own from a corner but his headed effort was deflected off of an Aalen defender for another corner that came to nothing. From that corner Aalen began an attack that was ended when Dustin Bomheuer was booked for holding back Daghfous. Then Düsseldorf coach Oliver Reck decided it was time for a change with Mathis Bolly coming on for the aforementioned Bomheuer.
This was followed by a moment of controversy, Andreas Ludwig had made his way into the Düsseldorf box before appearing to lift the ball into Jonathan Tah’s chest, the referee deemed this to be handball and the penalty was awarded. Replays couldn’t provide a definitive answer on whether or not it was handball but Tah was incensed by the decision. Daghfous stepped up and sent home a superb penalty just inside the upright leaving Unnerstall, who went the right way, with no chance.
Benshop was subsequently booked for a challenge on Daghfous who was constant thorn in Düsseldorf’s side. Dominick Drexler then nearly added to Aalen’s lead when he got a touch on the costless kick but it went just past the post. Düsseldorf kept trying up at the other end as well with Liendl having a superb shot from distance saved by Bernhardt. The last major chance of the game fell to Daghfous once again as he broke clear but under pressure from the recovering Bellinghausen he sent his shot straight at the keeper before sending the rebound wide.
