With players from the district league
Meppen marvels at Magdeburg’s football miracle
03/20/2022, 10:47 am
The third division team SV Meppen, which has been massively weakened in terms of personnel, actually has no chance against the sovereign leaders from Magdeburg. But the team uses it, they put themselves in the back and defend vehemently and successfully. It’s a very special day for three footballers.
With three district league players in the team, SV Meppen got a completely surprising point in the 3rd football league from the sovereign leaders 1. FC Magdeburg. After the absence of ten professionals due to corona, two red suspensions and a rejected application to postpone this game, the Emslanders had to fill their squad with players from the second team and still earned a 0-0 draw in front of 15,607 spectators.
“It was a dream for me to play for the first team in the 3rd division today,” said 22-year-old Leon Kugland on “MagentaSport”. The midfielder was even in the starting eleven, Louis Hebbelmann and Jannik Looschen came on as a substitute in the second half – and a proud coach Rico Schmitt said afterwards: “It’s a wonderful moment for us. And that in Magdeburg, with the strongest team in the league. ” The previous days had been “very hard” and the reaction of the team was “sensational”.
“Like a handball game”
The Meppeners were only on the defensive from the start. But they defended so well that the league leaders rarely had clear chances to score, which their coach Christian Titz also complained about. “It was like a handball game. We didn’t have as many chances as usual,” he said, referring to Meppen’s wall tactics. His opponent, on the other hand, was very satisfied: “I’m really proud that I was able to take part here today and that it’s finally a positive result for us again,” said Schmitt.
Nevertheless, the surprise team of the first half of the season has been without a win for eight third division games and won only one of eleven games this year.