The 2. Bundesliga weekend came to an end on Monday evening and it was derby day as Karlsruher SC hosted Sandhausen in the Baden Derby.

It took an hour for the game to explode into life and in the last half hour Karlsruhe stepped up to claim the bragging rights over Sandhausen. 

First half lacks derby spark

The first half was pretty uneventful and it took till the 28th minute for the game to have it's first threatening shot. Jonas Meffert played the ball into Dimitrij Nazarov and the forward tried his luck from range. He was almost rewarded, unfortunately for the home side Marco Knaller managed to flick the effort over the bar. 

The only other noteworthy attempt for Sandhausen came just before the break. Aziz Bouhaddouz played a lovely one-two with Korbinian Vollmann and Bouhaddouz shot from 20 yards out but the effort rolled narrowly wide. 

Karlsruhe should've taken the lead before the hour markl a corner from Sascha Traut found it's way to Meffert, who somehow put his header wide from only two yards out. 

Karlsruhe strike first

There were protests at the game, as both sets of supporters decided against singing for a large portion of the game due to it being played on a Monday night. As soon as the clock struck the 60-minute mark, the stadium excellently erupted into noise and unsurprisingly the game improved as the tempo increased. 

Eight minutes after the fans found their voices, the home side deservedly broke the deadlock. Traut found space on the right and his lovely cross saw Manuel Torres miss his opportunity, nevertheless his team mate Dimitrios Diamantakos was at hand to slide in and poke the ball past Knaller.

Signed and sealed three points

Sandhausen struggled to react to going behind, and after failing to create chances of their own they soon found themselves going further behind. A corner from Ylli Sallahi saw Bjarne Thölke leap the highest to head towards goal. Diamantakos completely missed the ball as he attempted to fire home, luckily Grischa Prömel was able to fire past Knaller.

Four minutes later Karlsruhe finished off their scoring as Enrico Valentini played the ball through to Hiroki Yamada, and the Japanese midfielder squared the ball across to the open Diamantakos who calmly slotted past Knaller.

It was an entertaining end to a dull match, however it's a vital three points for the home side who climb up to seventh place. Sandhausen will be disappointed with their performance as they failed to show up and the defeat sees them drop down to twelfth place. 

For Karlsruhe it is a trip to second place RB Leipzig, as they look to end the season strongly. Sandhausen return home to face second from bottom MSV Duisburg.