"First half was bottomless": Dynamo lose again

Dynamo Dresden suffered a major setback in their fight to stay in the 2nd Bundesliga after an indisputable first half. The 2:3 (0:2) defeat to fellow rivals Eintracht Braunschweig threatens to leave the Saxons in a relegation spot for the winter.

Former Dresden player Christian Conteh (7th minute) gave the visitors an early lead and made it 2:0 after 21 minutes. A double strike by Jakob Lemmer (54') and Nils Fröling (56') led to the equalizer before Patrick Nkoa (78') scored the winner for the visitors.

Coach Stamm: "I'd like to apologize to everyone for that"

"There's no excuse for the first half, it was out of the question," said coach Thomas Stamm. "I'd like to apologize to everyone who paid money for tickets here," said the coach, who also criticized the chances created in the second half.

"The first half was bottomless. We've rarely played so badly," said captain Stefan Kutschke, who had to replace Vincent Vermeij, who was suffering from muscular problems, at short notice. His team couldn't get into the game for a whole half. Not much went forward. Instead, Dynamo made hair-raising mistakes in their own half. A whole string of them led to the 0:1. In addition, the ball was repeatedly lost through passing errors, which also made the 0:2 possible. An organizing hand in midfield was missing.

Eintracht led Dynamo at times

Braunschweig were better in all respects, gained increasing confidence, had the air superiority and were more aggressive in tackles. Kofi Amoako was substituted after just 33 minutes, but coach Stamm could have used his full quota of substitutes. If Dresden goalkeeper Tim Schreiber had not reacted strongly three times against Erencan Yardimci (39th, 42nd) and Leon Bell Bell (45.+1) at the end of the first half and Johan Gomez (13th) and Mehmed Aydin (32nd) had not made the most of their clear chances, Dynamo could have been significantly further behind.

Dresden completely transformed after the break

After the break, Dynamo suddenly piled on the pressure, had more attacking moves in the first five minutes than in the entire first half and won three corners. However, they did not create any chances at first. Just as Eintracht were preparing to take control of the game again, the Saxons struck twice. They took advantage of several mistakes by Braunschweig, who were now visibly impressed.

After a breather, Dynamo picked up the pace again. Once again, Ron-Thorben Hoffmann in the Braunschweig goal was unable to keep out a Lemmer shot, as he had done before the equalizer, and Luca Herrmann, who followed up, hit the post from an acute angle. On 72 minutes, Herrmann failed to beat Hoffmann from a promising position.

Another set piece

When everything looked set for Dresden to take the lead, Braunschweig struck back. After a free-kick, there was chaos in the Dynamo penalty area and Nkoa tucked the ball over the line.

"Another standard. We need to talk about that," said Niklas Hauptmann, who came on for the second half and provided the momentum. In stoppage time, Jonas Oehmichen had the equalizer on his feet after a pass from goalkeeper Schreiber, but Hoffmann made up for his mistakes and saved the victory for his team.