Lidberg fires Darmstadt to another victory, Porath’s wonder goal wins it for Schalke

Darmstadt and Schalke maintained their decent starts to the season with wins over Fürth and Dresden, respectively.

League leaders Darmstadt recorded their third win on the bounce thanks to goals from their strikers. Meanwhile, Schlake left it late to earn another victory.

Schalke 1-0 Greuther Fürth

Schalke started the game brightly with their first chance coming from Soufiane El-Faouzi in the first minute. The summer signing from Alemannia Aachen was lively throughout a dominant half for Schalke, although Miron Muslic was forced to make an early substitution when Timo Becker went off injured in the ninth minute.

The hosts continued to enjoy the majority of possession after the restart, but they hardly tested Pelle Boevink until the final 20 minutes. Fürth’s goalkeeper was saved by Marco John’s goalline clearance before he denied Moussa Sylla what could have been his first goal since the opening day victory against Hertha Berlin.

Schalke’s captain Kenan Karaman was the next to be thwarted by Boevink, but the rebound was converted by Finn Porath from a bizarre angle with an improvised volley. Fürth had to change their approach after the goal, but Schalke’s defense stood firm for their third clean sheet of the season. Loris Karius denied Omar Sillah a first professional goal in injury-time before Karaman’s strike was chalked off for offside. Philipp Ziereis even had a chance to level the score in the final action of the game, but his header narrowly missed the target.

Darmstadt 2-0 Dynamo Dresden

The two teams are at different ends of the table at the start of the season. Darmstadt further showed their promotion hopes with a deserved half-time lead courtesy of yet another clinical finish by Isac Lidberg. The Swedish striker started the season with a hat-trick against Bochum, and he’s now scored in each of the last four league games.

Having survived an injury scare in the first-half, Fraser Hornby doubled Darmstadt’s lead after the break with his first goal of the season. Dresden saw much of the ball in the second-half, but they finished the game with no shots on target.