2. Bundesliga: Düsseldorf end winless away run in Nürnberg

Fortuna Düsseldorf won their first away game since September with a hard-fought victory in Nürnberg.

The visitors were missing their captain and goalkeeper Florian Kastenmeier due to injury. Similarly, Nürnberg couldn’t rely on the man who wore the armband as Fabio Gruber was injured inside the first five minutes.

In terms of chances, the first opportunity arrived in the midpoint of the first-half with Satoshi Tanaka’s improvised volley from Florent Muslija’s corner-kick. At the other end, Marcel Lotka misjudged a harmless cross, but the debutant wasn’t punished as Noah Maboulou was surrounded by Düsseldorf defenders.

Nürnberg started to build on their momentum as they ended the half strongly. Meanwhile, Muslija’s set-piece deliveries continued to create half-chances for the visitors. The best chance for the hosts also involved a dead-ball situation with Julian Justvan’s free-kick in the 45th minute.

There were better chances at either end early in the second-half. Markus Anfang’s side were able to make the most of it as Shinta Appelkamp puts them in front from a rebound after Jan-Marc Reichert blocked Christopher Lenz’s attempt.

Miroslav Klose looked towards his bench with successive double changes in search of an equalizing goal. In particular, Rabby Nzingoula had a great chance to level the score only a couple of minutes after his introduction.

Reichert then played a big role in keeping his side in the game with a double save ten minutes from time. Substitute Marin Ljubicic missed another golden chance, but Düsseldorf held on to record their first away win under Anfang. The result also means they took Nürnberg’s place in the top half of the standings.