Huge defeat for Essen: bitter setback for RWE in the promotion race

As of: May 2, 2026 • 7:20 p.m

Rot-Weiss Essen also lost at VfB Stuttgart II and once again lost ground in the fight for promotion to the 2nd league.

With the 1:6 (0:2) on Saturday, RWE suffered its third defeat in a row. Essen initially remained third in the table, but MSV Duisburg could overtake Energie Cottbus by winning a point in the top game on Sunday. Three match days earlier, Essen was in second place and was still four points ahead of third place.

Due to Essen’s defeat, league leaders VfL Osnabrück were able to celebrate promotion to the 2nd Bundesliga “on the couch”. Stuttgart II achieved another win after four previous defeats and moved up to 13th place.

RWE falls behind due to a penalty

A week after bitter home defeat against 1. FC Saarbrücken RWE had more of the game in the early stages without becoming compelling. A first long-range shot from Stuttgart by Mirza Catovic (12th) flew low to the right of the goal, on the other side a deflected attempt from Ruben Reisig (13th) from the second row missed the VfB goal.

Essen pressed high and had a lot of possession, but fell behind. Stuttgart’s Sessa moved into the middle from the right side and faked a shot when Reisig ran into his heels and brought Sessa down. The fouled player (24th) took the penalty himself and beat RWE keeper Jakob Golz, who was still on it, with a hard shot. Essen almost had the right answer, but Kaito Mizuta (28th) failed to get the follow-up shot past the strongly reacting VfB goalkeeper Jerik von der Felsen after a blocked shot by Jose Enrique Rios-Alonso.

Diehl leaves it 2-0 – but Sessa scores

But overall, Stuttgart’s defense was largely able to keep Essen away from their own goal. RWE had great luck with a VfB counterattack. Noah Darvich advanced down the right side and played a perfect cross pass to Justin Diehl (35′), who was running in the middle, and who missed the goal from seven meters. In the next few minutes, RWE kept going and getting shots, but it wasn’t really dangerous.

Instead, Essen conceded their second goal in stoppage time in the first half. Sessa (45th + 1) strolled across the pitch, was not attacked in a half-right position and shot the ball exactly into the left corner from a good 20 meters – a dream goal. At halftime, RWE coach Uwe Koschinat was visibly annoyed by his team’s poor defensive performance.

Stuttgart double strike after the break

Things got even worse for RWE in the second half. Stuttgart launched their next counterattack against the advanced Essen team on the right side. Darvich fed Jeremy Arevalo (56th), who beat Golz as he rushed out of his goal and slotted it into the empty goal to make it 3-0. Five minutes later the home team struck again. Captain Michael Schultz played a back pass that was too short to Golz, which Mohamed Saloh (61′) ran over and made it 4-0.

Food was now falling apart. Arevalo (78th) made it 5-0 after RWE ran into the next counterattack. After Stuttgart’s break-away, Arevalo (82′) again ran alone towards Golz and scored a hat-trick. Jaka Cuber Potocnik scored Essen’s consolation goal in stoppage time.

RWE now against Verl

On the 37th matchday Red and white food the SC Verl. The game against Ostwestfalen will kick off on Saturday, May 9th at 2 p.m. in the stadium on Hafenstrasse in Essen. On the last match day, RWE visits SSV Ulm (May 16th/1:30 p.m.).

Our sources:

Broadcast: WDR.de, “Clap for Essen in the promotion fight””, May 2nd, 2026, 6:48 p.m