Football – Munich – “Brutal will”: Big 1860 comeback before big cup evening – Bavaria
Munich (dpa/lby) – After the grandiose comeback victory against SV Wehen Wiesbaden, TSV 1860 Munich can not only tackle its race to catch up in the 3rd football league with a lot of tailwind. The 3-2 (1-2) in the first competitive game of the year after being 2-0 down was also the ideal prelude to the next big evening in the DFB Cup on Tuesday (6.30 p.m.) in the round of 16 against Karlsruher SC.
“The team showed brutal will and brutal team spirit,” enthused 1860 coach Michael Köllner on Saturday after a crazy game in the Munich fog. After 23 minutes and two goals conceded by Florian Carstens and Dominik Prokop, things looked bad for the “lions” in the empty Grünwalder stadium.
But with the great turnaround, the training of standard situations at the winter camp in Belek, Turkey, also paid off: Semi Belkahia reduced the lead after a free kick by captain Stefan Lex (36th minute). Defense colleague Stephan Salger hits a corner from Lex (50th). And Richard Neudecker scored the celebrated winning goal from another free kick in the 69th minute. Attacker Lex deflected the shot from left-footed Neudecker untenably.
“I have no idea, I don’t care,” Lex replied when asked who should be credited for the goal to make it 3-2: “The main thing is that we won.” The 1: 2 before the break “brought faith back to the team. We said to each other at half-time that we could still turn things around.” And that’s what the “lions” did.
After three wins in a row, the “lions” have the promotion zone back in view. Winning goal scorer Neudecker, who will miss the next league game against Türkgücü after the fifth yellow card, the talk of the 2nd division comes too early: “We were beaten up a lot in the first half of the season. And now, if we win a game, to talk about promotion, that would be very, very critical.”
Before the next league task, however, the third second division team in the DFB Cup should be eliminated this season. “We hope that we can give KSC a difficult dance and maybe create a surprise again in the end,” announced Köllner.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:220116-99-728400/2