Second division soccer team Fortuna Düsseldorf has celebrated a mandatory victory against Eintracht Braunschweig thanks to a miracle cure by goalscorer Dawid Kownacki. On Friday evening, coach Daniel Thioune's team won 3-1 (2-0) against the relegation candidates. Kownacki after just over 40 seconds, Christoph Klarer (25th) and substitute Jona Niemiec (85th) scored the goals for the Rhinelanders with his first professional goal. Rouwen Hennings (18th) also failed with a miserable penalty kick on Braunschweig keeper Jasmin Fejzic.

After the change, the guests came up again after a controversial own goal by Düsseldorf keeper Florian Kastenmeier (62nd). Kastenmeier caught a corner from Robin Krausse's guests and, according to referee Sven Waschitzki-Günther, is said to have turned behind the goal line with the ball in his arms as he fell. In any case, after studying the video images, Waschitzki-Günther decided that the full extent of the ball should have been behind the line. Eintracht got courage again, but was too harmless overall and conceded the decisive third goal after a counterattack.

Match winner for Fortuna was Kownacki, who tore a muscle fiber twelve days ago and was surprisingly in the starting XI after just one training session on Thursday. After his ninth goal of the season, the Pole also got the penalty and the free kick that led to the second Düsseldorf goal.

With 35 points, the Fortune jumped to fifth place, at least for one night. After the third defeat in a row this weekend, Braunschweig could even fall back into the relegation zone in the worst case with 21 points.

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