Hertha BSC heat 2.Bundesliga again

Hertha took three hard-fought but well-deserved points from their round 19 division two clash at home to never say die Fortuna Düsseldorf, in front of 36,162 at the Olympiastadion Berlin on Sunday afternoon. The crucial win sees coach Markus Babbel and his side regain top spot in the table, after FC Augsburg could only draw 1-1 with Paderborn.

Berlin began in attacking mood and had the opening chance of the game, as a Ronny free kick flew just wide of target off the head of Ramos (2.). The Columbian then failed to control the ball while in a promising position moments later. Defensive-minded Fortuna were fortunate that Langeneke cleared Lasogga’s header off the line, after a major mistake by Fortuna keeper Melka (10.).

After a lively start, the visitors began to make more of a mark on the game, occasionally probing forward, especially down the left. One such move gave the visitors a shock lead. Hubnik could only deflect the low cross played into the box by van den Bergh into the path of Düsseldorf skipper Lambert, who got a shot in from the edge of the area which deflected off Raffael and Kobiashvili before, finally beating Aerts between the Hertha posts to open the scoring (21.).

The home side upped the pressure on Fortuna right away, as they went in search of an equaliser. Melka produced an excellent save to deal with a Lasogga shot on the turn. Within the same minute, Hubnik was hoping for some “fortuna” of his own. But the Czech battler could only look on as his header bounced off the crossbar and out of play (25.). Ramos finally went one better four minutes later, latching onto a superb pinpoint cross from the right and burying it into the bottom right hand corner of the Düsseldorn net – 1:1!

The promotion hopefuls were boosted by their equaliser and continued to take the game to the visitors. Playmaker Raffael fired narrowly wide from 20 metres (35.). Fortuna only threatened once more before the break through Bröker on 37 minutes. On 42 minutes Kobiashvilli’s misplaced pass undid a wonderful passing move, so the game was nicely balanced at 1-1 as the halftime ended.

Meier brought on Jovanovic for Zoundi at the start of the second half, while counterpart Babbel made no changes at first. He did however make tactical moves, having Rukavytsa switch wings. Raffael played a ball to the Australian from the left. Rukavytsa let fly from inside the area to fire his side ahead. Visiting keeper Melka did not look good as he did so (51.).

Then Fortuna had to up their effort and they did. They were a little unlucks that Jovanovic just failed to connect with a Rösler cross close in (57.) and that Lambertz’ flying header missed the target (62.). Hertha had taken a breather after taking the lead, but threatened again as Melka once again flapped at a Raffael cross (64.).

The Berliners failed to deal with Fortuna when they broke down the left. They conceded again and Düsseldorf’s second goal was a mirror of their first strike: Van den Bergh played a one two with Rösler near the byline. Lambertz scored by converting a low cross into the bottom right hand corner from only 10 metres out (68.) 2-2!.

Aerts was in action again, dealing with a tricky effort at his near post (72.) that could easily have been another goal for the visitors. As it was though, Lasogga bagged his third goal in two games blasting a low shot home, after receiving an unintended pass from Rukavytsa to fire Hertha ahead (76.).

Hertha sub Domovchiyski was lucky not to have been sent off after an incident with Lambertz, who himself was given a second yellow card after a duel with Perdedaj (84.). Aerts then took the sting out of a Bröker thunderbolt (88.). Ramos was the Hertha hero of the day though,  as he produced a superb lob following a solo run three minutes into stoppage time to make the final score 4-2 to Hertha.

Match details:

Hertha BSC: Aerts – Lell, Hubnik, Neumann, Kobiashvili – Perdedaj (85. Morales) – Rukavytsya (89. Schulz), Raffael, Ronny (74. Domovchiyksi)– Lasogga, Ramos

Fortuna Düsseldorf: Melka – Schwertfeger, Lukimya, Langeneke, van den Bergh – Bodzek (65. Dum)– Zoundi (46. Jovanovic), Fink (83. Ilsö), Lambertz – Bröker, Rösler

Goals: 0:1 Lambertz (21.), 1:1 Ramos (29.), 2:1 Rukavytsya (51.), 2:2 Lambertz (68.), 3:2 Lasogga (76.), 4:2 Ramos (90. + 3)

Booked: : Perdedaj – van den Bergh, Lambertz, Langeneke

Sent off: Lambertz