FSV Frankfurt vs. SV Stuttgarter Kickers 0:1

FSV Frankfurt had a top match against Stuttgarter Kickers at home in the PSD Bank Arena on today's 26th matchday in the South-West Regional Football League. With a win, the Black & Blues could move past Kickers Offenbach and close the gap to league leaders Hoffenheim to three points.

FSV head coach Tim Görner made four changes to the starting eleven compared to the previous match at Eintracht Trier. FSV captain Tim Weißmann, Nicolas Loebus, Ben-Luca Fisher and Giorgio Del Vecchio started from the beginning. Tim Latteier and Timo Hildmann were both missing due to yellow cards. The first half began with constant pressing by the visitors, who won the ball several times as a result. Bornheim went on the defensive early on and the division of roles between the two teams became clear relatively quickly. Although the home side launched several attacks, the balls they played were too imprecise and the Swabians quickly regained possession. In the 16th minute, Stuttgart marched in front of the Black & Blue's penalty area and shot at FSV keeper Justin Ospelt's goal, but the ball went past the right-hand post. As the first half progressed, Marco Wildersinn's side became increasingly dangerous in front of the home penalty area. Ospelt made several saves, including a powerful shot on goal from Per Lockl in the 22nd minute. Five minutes later, the goalkeeper once again prevented the visitors from scoring, this time from a free-kick. After Stuttgart's Paul Polauke played the ball too short to SVK goalkeeper David Mitrovic, Lucas Hermes intervened and tried to intercept the ball, but the striker went down in the penalty area. However, the Black & Blue were not awarded a penalty for this action. At the end of the first 45 minutes, FSV went into attack mode and looked for the gap in front of the Swabians' penalty area, but it was not dangerous for the Kickers. Both teams went into the break scoreless after two minutes of stoppage time.

After the break, Görner's team got into the game better, acted more courageously and delivered several crosses into the Stuttgart penalty area. The game developed into an evenly-matched duel over the course of the second half. In the 56th minute, FSV created a good chance to take the lead after Mitrovic first blocked Loebus' shot and Polauke cleared Peters' shot at the last moment on the goal line. Shortly afterwards, Ospelt prevented another goal after Marcel Schmidts failed to beat the goalkeeper. Just under five minutes later, Leonhard von Schroetter played the round ball to Peters in the direction of the Kickers' penalty area, but the latter was unable to reach the ball in time, meaning that the ball ended up out of the goal and another opportunity was wasted. The top-of-the-table game became more heated in the closing stages, with several fouls being committed and referee Tobias Ewerhardy reaching into his pocket several times to show the yellow card. In the 78th minute, the away team from Degerloch were awarded a free-kick following a foul by Elias Breir. Lockl took this directly and scored the Swabians' first goal of the match. Bornheim came under time pressure and threw everything forward again in the final minutes, with several crosses into the visitors' penalty area, but the Kickers defended attentively. In the first minute of stoppage time, FSV missed a great opportunity to equalize after Stuttgart goalkeeper Mitrovic parried the shot of substitute George Iorga from very close range and Giorgio Del Vecchio finally just missed the box with a follow-up shot. The referee brought the match to a close in front of 2,693 spectators after an unsuccessful corner kick by the home side. In the end, Görner's team suffered a painful defeat.

FSV Frankfurt lost the top duel against Stuttgarter Kickers at home with 0:1 and thus missed out on closing the gap on league leaders Hoffenheim. The Bornheim side currently occupy fourth place in the Regionalliga Südwest table, with the leaders six points ahead of the Black & Blues. Next week is the so-called English week. FSV will host the U23s of 1. FSV Mainz 05 on Wednesday, April 2, at 7 p.m. The next home game is against KSV Hessen Kassel the following Sunday. Kick-off is at 2 p.m. in the PSD Bank Arena.