Holstein Kiel fell at the final hurdle despite an impressive season under coach Ole Werner, they just missed out on promotion via the play-offs and also enjoyed a historic run to the semi-finals of the DFB Cup.
Kiel enjoyed a successful first-half of the season, they topped the table at the turn of the year losing just one of their first 13 games.
One of the contributing factors of their good form was their improvement defensively from the previous season, Kiel would go on to boast the best defensive record in the division, conceding just 35 goals.
Not only were Kiel going well in the league but in the cup they also surprised many. They stunned European Champions Bayern in the second round, winning on penalties after holding them to a 2-2 draw.
Things took an unusual turn in both March and April when Covid twice hit the club. The whole team had to quarantine for lengthy spells, leaving a backlog of fixtures to complete, including a cup-semi final which they went on to lose to Dortmund.
Jae-sung Lee was again a big player over the course of the season but veteran Finn Bartels and midfielder Alexander Muhling stole the headlines with some important goals. Young striker Serra was also a menace, particularly in the latter part of the season.
A credit to Werner’s men was their resilience after they resumed action, Kiel would win 5 of their 7 league games in just 3 weeks, putting them in the automatic promotion places with a game remaining.
The final stages of the season would bring heartache as Kiel lost at home to Darmstadt, thus opening the door for Furth to clinch promotion, this was then followed by a 5-2 aggregate defeat to Koln in the play-offs.
