Arminia Bielefeld put together a clean sheet and three goals against Energie Cottbus at the SchücoArena on Sunday. The hosts claimed a comfortable 3-0 victory in the second round of the 2. Bundesliga. J. Grodowski ran the show with a hat-trick, opening the scoring and then adding a penalty to complete his haul.
And here's the thing about the first half — it ended with Bielefeld already in control. Grodowski opened the scoring in the twenty-sixth minute, then doubled the advantage seven minutes later. Cottbus had the better of possession but created nothing of note. The visitors turned to the kids in the second half, bringing on Kinsombi and Guttau at the break.
The penalty in the seventy-sixth minute gave Grodowski his third and effectively killed the contest. Cottbus manager pulled the trigger on several changes, bringing on Rorig and Michelbrink together in the seventy-fifth minute. By then the result was beyond doubt, though the visitors still managed to pick up two bookings in quick succession.
To be fair, the statistics tell a familiar story. Cottbus held 60 per cent of the ball and completed 430 passes compared to Bielefeld's 269, but created zero big chances. The hosts registered six big chances and hit an expected goals figure of 3.57. Shots tell the same tale — Cottbus had three attempts, none on target, while Bielefeld found the back of the net five times.
The win moves Arminia to four points from four games, keeping them ninth in the table. Cottbus remain on three points after four matches, sitting sixteenth. The hosts had lost their opening game 1-2 to Karlsruher and drawn with MSV Duisburg before this result. Cottbus came from a 3-1 win over Hannover 96 but have now lost three of four league fixtures.