"Shut down as quickly as possible": Magdeburg and the standards

Magdeburg and SpVgg Greuther Fürth delivered a historic performance in the Bundesliga 2. Eight goals in the first half means the previous league record has been broken. This mark had already been set three times before. In the end, the Elbe club were happy to have secured three important points in the relegation battle with the 5:4 (5:3).

The game in Fürth was one of a number of high-scoring matches, all of which had more goals on offer than Friday evening's game: Kaiserslautern - Meppen ended 7-6 in 1997 after a 6-2 half-time score, TeBe Berlin against Fortuna Köln 5-6 (5-3) in 1979 and Nuremberg against Homburg 6-5 (5-3) in 1975.

The fact that Fürth came back into the game at all after FCM had turned a deficit into a 5-1 advantage was due to Magdeburg's weak defending from corner kicks. Fürth came back to within two goals before the break - and the hosts were back in the game after the 5:4 (47') at the latest.

"Defending is a joint task"

However, coach Petrik Sander did not want to attribute the defensive weakness to individual players. "Defending set pieces is a joint task. Everyone has to do their part and it's not my cup of tea to put it down to individuals," said the 65-year-old. Nevertheless, he added, they need to think about how to improve it: "We'll have another chat about whether we should move away from this man-to-man defensive approach or this combination of both and focus on one thing."

So a new type of standard defense could be introduced at FCM against Bielefeld that needs to take effect quickly - Magdeburg will need stability against Schalke's strong headers at the latest.

Magdeburg's offense working again

In Fürth, the Blue & Whites' offense once again worked excellently. Mateusz Zukowski is increasingly developing into the successor to the departed Martijn Kaars and scored three times. Baris Atik shone with three assists - but also set up Fürth's fourth goal. The 31-year-old took this with humor - thanks to winning the game: "Of course you're happy about three assists in one half, but with the gift it's almost four. The fact that it was so close after 5:1 was absolute madness. We have to put a stop to that as quickly as possible."