The Red Devils could not convert their chances into goals Saturday night and missed their chance to climb in the standings, falling to 1. FC Nuremberg 2-1.

Julian Krahl was back between the posts for 1. FC Kaiserslautern, following his injury. FCK coach Markus Anfang made additional lineup changes, starting Jan Gyamerah, Filip Kaloc and Daniel Hanslik against FCN, coached by former Red Devil star Miroslav Klose.

The teams started slowly, testing the defenses. Nuremberg struck first when in the 14^th minute, Fabio Gruber put a header past Krahl into the net.

Kaiserslautern did not have a good scoring chance until shortly before halftime, when FCN keeper Jan Reichert made a save on a Marlon Ritter free kick.

After the intermission, the Red Devils took over, with multiple scoring chances. Ritter could have evened the score with possibilities in the 50^th, 53^rd, 59^th and 61^st minute, but either narrowly missed the target or Reichert made the saves. He also stopped a distance shot by Ragnar Ache in the 52^nd minute.

Despite the FCK scoring opportunities, it was Nuremburg’s Mahir Emreli who scored the 2-0 in the 68^th minute, curving a shot from about 16 yards out past Krahl and into the right upper corner of the goal.

Reichert stopped another Ritter scoring opportunity in the 70^th minute, but the FCK captain finally scored on a penalty two minutes later, after a hand ball by a Nuremberg player in the box.

Ache, Ritter and Faride Alidou had opportunities to tie the game, with Ritter’s shot hitting the crossbar.

Ache had the final chance to score, but his volley shot in stoppage time narrowly sailed over the crossbar.

The loss dropped the Red Devils to fifth place in the second division standings. The loss was made worse, because all the teams ahead of them either lost or tied their games. A win would have put the team back in third place.

The big winner so far this weekend is Elversberg, which climbed into third after beating Hannover. A win by Paderborn Sunday afternoon would move them into third.

The race for third, and a playoff against the 16^th-place Bundesliga team remains tight, with only four points separating Elversberg from nineth place Hannover.

Up next for the Red Devils is a trip to Braunschweig on Saturday. They return to Fritz Walter Stadium on April 27 for a match against Schalke 04.

K-town Sports