It has been set in stone for almost two weeks now: SV Darmstadt 98 will no longer be playing in the Bundesliga next season. Following a year in the top flight, coach Torsten Lieberknecht’s team will drop back down to the 2. Bundesliga. But before that happens, the “Lilies” want to bid farewell in a respectable manner. “There is of course great disappointment among all of us about our relegation. But we have the expectation and every individual player must also have the expectation that we will finish off the season in a professional manner,” said Lieberknecht about the remainder of the campaign.
Darmstadt will play their final Bundesliga home game for the time being on Sunday. TSG Hoffenheim will be the visitors. SVD have positive memories against the Kraichgau outfit: the reverse fixture ended 3-3, with Darmstadt coming from behind three times. That point gave the Hesse outfit hope in the relegation battle, but the 17 points picked up to date were not enough to provide a realistic chance of surviving in the division.
Darmstadt rotated to some degree ahead of the home game against VfL Wolfsburg (3-0 defeat) and gave some game time to substitute keeper Alexander Brunst. Centre-back Christoph Zimmermann is suspended, while long-term injury absentees Fabian Holland and Fraser Hornby are also out.
The “Lilies” will be particularly wary of one player: Andrej Kramarić has found the net in each of his four appearances against Darmstadt to date and will be looking to extend that scoring run to help TSG in the race for the European spots. But SVD will do everything in their power to prevent that. After all, they want to bid farewell to the Bundesliga in front of their own fans with a victory if at all possible.