Rot-Weiss Essen was only able to secure a point against the second representative from VfB Stuttgart shortly before the end. Coach Uwe Koschinat’s team only found their way into the game late.
It would have been a really big evening Red and white food could be: With a win against VfB Stuttgart II, the traditional club would have been with the top teams 3rd leagueDuisburg and Cottbus, can catch up. In the end, however, the score against the Swabians was 1-1 (0-0), which came about at the last second. The people of Essen certainly couldn’t be satisfied with this performance, which was sleepy and surprisingly passive for long stretches.
“It was an incredibly stressful game for us. We were dominated in many areas. We have to live with the fact that we got a point. There was nothing more possible today,” said RWE coach Uwe Koschinat at Magenta Sport.
Swabians are dominant
The Essen team started the game cautiously, letting the Swabians have the ball. The Stuttgart team were the dominant team and let the ball and opponents run. Above all, the attacking midfielders Noah Darvich (who had to be substituted after just 19 minutes with a thigh injury) and Nicolas Sessa boosted the Swabians’ game.
However, they couldn’t really score any big goals. And when the ball hit the RWE goal, goalkeeper Felix Wienand was there to keep the Essen team calm and safe.
RWE hardly gets the ball
After around half an hour, the hosts had a small period of pressure, Kaito Mizuta with a header, Tom Moustier with a shot attempt, but both balls were blocked by Stuttgart’s balls on the way to the goal. That was it for RWE’s offensive efforts, also because the Koschinat team hardly ever got the ball or lost it far too quickly. VFB II had 70 percent possession of the ball at times.
Essen never really got into the game in the first half and the team was happy that the guests didn’t use their superiority to take the lead.
Serious defensive error
The game hardly changed in the second half. Essen continued to act too passively, didn’t create any chances to score and let Stuttgart have their way. Since Stuttgart also had few ideas in front of the opponent’s goal, the game went largely uneventful.
But then Rios Alonso made a serious mistake. The Essen central defender misused the ball in his own penalty area. Mohamed Sankoh, was physically robust and kept calm in front of RWE goalkeeper Wienand and made it 1-0 (81′).
Janssen scores the equalizer
Only then did the Koschinat team wake up and create pressure. This should pay off immediately. After a handball in the penalty area by Sankoh after a Moustier cross, Ahmet Arslan had the chance to equalize, but he was denied from the penalty spot by VfB goalkeeper Florian Hellstern, who deflected the ball for a corner.
But the equalizer came directly after this corner kick. Mizuto picked up Moustier’s deflected shot in the penalty area and crossed smoothly into the six-yard box, where Marek Janssen headed it in from close range to make it 1-1 (89′).
RWE then tried to score the winning goal, but nothing came of it.
