Second division leaders Darmstadt 98 defeated Magdeburg 1-0 on Friday and thereby secured their return to the Bundesliga after six years, with one game left to play.
Darmstadt’s top scorer Phillip Tietz scored the winning goal in the 36th minute after a VAR check and brought his team to 67 points, crucially seven points clear of Hamburg in third.
“We deserved it so much,” said Tobias Kempe, a veteran who already played with Darmstadt in the Bundesliga in the 2015/16 season.
“I’m empty, completely empty,” said coach Torsten Lieberknecht. “I never thought that I would find something like this again after Braunschweig. I’m incredibly proud,” he said.
Lieberknecht had led Eintracht Braunschweig from the 3. Bundesliga all the way up to the top flight in the space of just three seasons between 2010 and 2013, although the small club could only last a year in the Bundesliga on a modest budget.
Race for Bundesliga
The top two teams from 2nd Bundesliga win automatic promotion while the third team goes into a playoff with the 16th-placed, third-from-bottom, Bundesliga team.
Heidenheim, in second place on 61 points, face Sandhausen on Saturday, while third-placed Hamburg are on 60. Both those teams have two games left to play, but it is now mathematically impossible for Hamburg to catch Darmstadt, meaning Lieberknecht’s side are guaranteed automatic promotion no matter what.
dh/msh (Reuters, SID)
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