Ipswich Town returned to Portman Road for the first time since securing promotion to the Premier League, losing 2-1 to 2. Bundesliga outfit Fortuna Dusseldorf.
Danny Schmidt's early goal was cancelled out by Marcus Harness' impressive strike shortly after the restart, but Tim Roßmann's low finish in the second half was enough to hand the visitors the win before the scheduled penalty shoot-out.
Fortuna Dusseldorf started the quicker of the two sides, which was to be expected as their 2. Bundesliga campaign kicks off next week with a tough trip to Darmstadt.
It took them just five minutes to take the lead as Isak Johannesson curled a cross towards Schmidt, whose header bounced off the ground and up into the goal to make it 0-1. Arijanet Muric's first action in a Town shirt was to pick the out of his own net.
The Blues came close to finding a response two minutes later as Liam Delap was played through on goal, but he couldn’t get the final touch before Florian Kastenmeier collected the ball.
They began to grow into the game and we started to see some familiar patterns of play. Leif Davis pushed high up the pitch to deliver a cross just over the head of Wes Burns in the 12th minute. The visitors launched a counterattack up the other end but Muric got down low to deny Felix Klaus as referee Josh Smith noticed a collision between Schmidt and Burns.
The Wales international came off worse from the clash but he opted to play on. Soon after, Town’s press began to work a they forced Kastenmeier into a mistake, although neither Sam Morsy nor Conor Chaplin could capitalise before Burns won a corner, which Fortuna cleared.
It was one of his last actions of the game as he went down again on the half-hour mark, with Harness coming on. Burns went straight down the tunnel as his replacement took the ball down the right, forcing a finger-tip save from Kastenmeier before the ball could find Delap.
The former Manchester City man came close once again shortly before the break, as did Harness, but last-ditch defending prevented Ipswich from striking back. The latter took just two minutes into the second half to find an equaliser, however, as Chaplin’s quick flick picked him out on the right to curl a low shot into the back of the net.
It was the least they deserved, and the four half-time substitutes were able to quickly settle into the game. They should’ve gone ahead in the 52nd minute as George Hirst raced down the left, squaring the ball for Jack Taylor in the middle. Once again, Kastenmeier stood tall to deny him, pushing his shot over the bar.
It took one defensive lapse to let the visitors back in, however, with a quick through ball exploiting a gap down Town’s right as substitute Roßmann surged down the flank before firing past Christian Walton to re-establish his side’s lead.
Town looked like they began to tire after that, with Fortuna Dusseldorf clearly benefitting from the extra preparations. They dominated possession and continued to threaten, unlucky to not score a third goal.
There were a few bright moments from the Blues, who caught a second wind in the dying stages of the match, bolstered by the introduction of youngsters like Finley Barbrook and Leon Ayinde. Freddie Ladapo was given two good opportunities to equalise, but he couldn't capitalise as Ipswich fell to a defeat in IP1.
The action didn't end there, however, with a penalty shoot-out beginning soon after the full-time whistle was blown.
Chaplin stepped up first, but his low effort struck the post. However, Mattias Zimmermann's spot-kick was saved by Walton, with both sides scoring their next five penalties.
Luke Woolfenden's side-footed effort was stopped by Kastenmeier, with the goalkeeper stepping up himself to score the final penalty as Fortuna Dusseldorf secured a 7-6 win in the shoot-out.
Town XI: 4-2-3-1: Muric (Walton 46'); Johnson (Barbrook 80'), Edmundson (Woolfenden 46'), Greaves (Burgess 46'), Davis (Baggott 66'); Morsy, Luongo (Ladapo 66'); Burns, Chaplin (Ayinde 88'), Taylor; Delap (Hirst 46')
Fortuna Dusseldorf XI: 4-3-3: Kastenmeier, Zimmermann, Oberdorf (Quarshie 80'), Hoffmann (De Wijs 80'), Iyoha (Jastrzembski 86'); Johannesson, Tanaka, Sobottka (Suso 86'); Klaus (Niemec 61'), Schmidt (Manu 80'), Appelkamp (Roßmann 46')
Attendance: 15,337 (453 away)
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