Dhe 57 shots on goal with which the “lilies” have covered their opponents in the past two games seem to be record-breaking. Four points jumped out – 2:2 at home against Karlsruhe, 2:0 in Ingolstadt. According to Torsten Lieberknecht, his Darmstadt pros were only in “good physical shape”. For the home game against Hamburger SV this Sunday (1.30 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the 2nd Bundesliga and on Sky) and the rest of the second division round, they are “in great shape”, according to the head coach.
The southern Hessians saw the two-week break as a second winter preparation and turned up the intensity in training. In the subtext, Lieberknecht resonated: The “lilies” are so ready for the showdown with HSV in the top game of the 21st matchday. First, what the Darmstadt team was last time in 2014, against fourth. The southern Hessian leader, who has scored ten points from the past four games, against the Hanseatic heavyweight, where claim and reality do not want to be congruent even in the fourth year in the second division. With a home win, Darmstadt would pile up a whopping eight points between themselves and HSV.
Lieberknecht’s good mood is clouded by the fact that the SVD is allowed to play the top game in front of only 1000 spectators at the Böllenfalltor. If the home game was this Monday, 7,000 would have been allowed to come. “It’s a shame,” said the man from the Palatinate, “that many fans can’t be part of the journey we’ve embarked on live.”
A journey that has so far taken the club to great heights on a stable cushion of air. Lieberknecht does not see the danger of falling from the top spot, because the Darmstadt thinking should not be characterized by fear of loss, but by aggressiveness. “My team embodies a mix of fun, joy and the will to always attack and not just want to defend,” said Lieberknecht, who may have to do without regular Klaus Gjasula (knee problems).
HSV should not be able to harm the “flow that we want to stay in” (midfielder Tobias Kempe). Lieberknecht believes that his team will need an “extraordinary performance”. Conversely, HSV will also have to go beyond its limits to get something in Darmstadt. “You know that at HSV too, when he analyzes us.”
