Hertha BSC remains without a win this year in the Olympic Stadium. The Berliners couldn’t get past a disappointing 1-1 (1-0) against VfL Bochum on Friday evening and missed important points. After the opening goal by Ishak Belfodil in the 23rd minute, Sebastian Polter (48th) equalized for the guests in front of 3000 supporters. In the table, VfL (11th place/25 points) maintained a two-point lead over Hertha (23), who were initially in twelfth place at the start of the 21st matchday.
The Berliners initially started with a lot of enthusiasm from the short international break. Korkut had made five changes to his starting XI after the 4-1 loss to FC Bayern, and new signing Marc Oliver Kempf was to stabilize the central defense. Stevan Jovetic reported fit in time – but Vladimir Darida fired the first shot, Manuel Riemann, goalkeeper of VfL Bochum, saved safely (4th). Santiago Ascacibar’s attempt went just over it (15′).
The high pressure of the Berliners initially caused great difficulties for the guests. The timid attempts to attack, especially via the fast Gerrit Holtmann, rarely led to the goal. In the evening, VfL trainer Thomas Reis had to do without the professionals Anthony Losilla and Eduard Löwen (on loan from Hertha), who were infected with Corona. Captain Losilla recently described Reis as “the heart of the team”.
Dissatisfied Coach Reis
And without this, VfL fell behind: Belfodil converted a free kick from Jovetic with a header, the Berliners scored in the eleventh home game of the season. There was no direct response from Bochum, which was also due to the hosts’ concentrated defensive work in the first half. Maximilian Mittelstädt’s shot was almost deflected by Maxim Leitsch into his own goal (35′).
Reis seemed anything but satisfied on the sidelines, VfL had already lost the first leg. In the second half, Thomas Reis brought in Patrick Osterhage for Takuma Asano and Polter for Robert Tesche, and Polter fitted in perfectly from the start. After a long shot from Riemann, he put Jürgen Locadia in position, whose shot Alexander Schwolow, goalkeeper of Hertha, only bounced forward. Polter didn’t miss the chance to score – his seventh goal of the season.
“In the first half we were clearly the better team,” said newcomer Marc Oliver Kempf at DAZN. “With a shot on goal that was a bit dangerous,” Hertha then conceded the equalizer. “The one goal I conceded really annoys me, it would have been nicer to keep a clean sheet,” said Kempf.
The Berliners recovered quickly afterwards. Korkut also reacted with changes, including new signing Dongjun Lee (58′), and later Fredrik André Bjorkan (75′). Both teams played happily forward for the rest of the season, but acted too hectically at times. Riemann held against Jovetic (66th), on the other side Milos Pantovic (71st) tried it.
