SV Meppen won their home match against Viktoria Berlin with ease 3:0. An early yellow card for Berlin played into SVM’s hands.
Meppen coach Rico Schmitt changed his starting line-up in two positions after the 5-0 dismantling at Eintracht Braunschweig: Hemlein and Puttkammer played for Guder and Egerer.
Viktoria coach Benedetto Muzzicato also made two changes compared to the goalless draw against Türkgücü: Kapp and Falcao came on for Lewald (red suspension) and Theisen.
Early dismissal for Pinckert
After a brief feeling-out period, the game picked up speed early on: First Al-Hazaimeh failed with a header against Krahl (7th), a little later the ball fell at Tankulic’s feet after a corner and he scored from 10 metres to make it 1:0 (11th). Shortly thereafter, the guests suffered another setback: After only 15 minutes, Pinckert received his second yellow card and had to go to the dressing room early, Berlin played with ten players from that moment on. A horror start for the Viktoria.
In the aftermath, the visitors were off the mark and Meppen took complete control. The SV set up their opponents and looked for gaps in the deep Berlin backline. Tankulic found those gaps in the 27th minute: The captain let two opponents off the hook after a beautiful pass from Blacha and sank the ball under the crossbar for 2:0.
Only a strong save by Krahl prevented the 3:0 (34th), Berlin continued to do little or nothing. Shortly before the break, however, Berlin almost scored the equaliser: Küc grabbed the ball after a misplaced pass in front of the Meppen goal and hit the crossbar with Berlin’s only goal of the first half. With the score 2:0, the team went into the break.
Meppen leave nothing to chance
Meppen continued in the second half where they had left off at the end of the first half: SV besieged the visitors’ penalty area, the first clear chance came from Faßbender, whose shot was cleared for a corner by Krahl at the last moment (51).
For long stretches of the second half, very little happened. Meppen didn’t seem to want to score a third goal, Berlin hardly took place offensively in any case. In the 77th minute, however, the SVM finally put the lid on it, Hemlein sinking an assist from Ametov into the bottom left corner.
In the final quarter of an hour, nothing much happened and SVM managed to hold on to the lead. So the duel ended with 3:0.
Meppen will host Halleschen FC on Saturday at 2 p.m., while Viktoria Berlin will travel to Kölner Viktoria on Friday evening (7 p.m.).
