VfB Krieschow pulled off a big surprise in the Brandenburg State Cup final. The upper division club beat second division promoted Energie Cottbus 2-1 in the Leag Energie Stadium and thus celebrated the first national cup victory in the club’s history.
- VfB Krieschow beat Energie Cottbus 2-1 in the state cup final
- Both teams had already qualified for the first round of the DFB Cup before the game began
- Cottbus played with a B-Elf, Claus-Dieter Wollitz sat in the stands
A week after promotion to the 2nd league Energy Cottbus Lost the Brandenburg State Cup final against VfB Krieschow 1-2. The fifth division team surprisingly defeated the favorites confidently and was able to crown their third final appearance with a victory for the first time.
Cottbus was unsafe from the start
Energie Cottbus got off to a rocky start and fell behind in the 11th minute. After a cross from Leo Felgenträger, the ball found its way onto the chest of Cottbus player Henry Rorig, who had little time to react and put Krieschow in the lead with an own goal.
Bitter for energy, but not an undeserved lead for the guests – they left Cottbus little space, so the second division promoted team took a little too long for everything.
After almost 20 minutes, Cottbus was lucky twice: Miguel Pereira Rodrigues and Jannis Fuchs missed promising chances to make it 2-0. Krieschow stayed on the trigger and took advantage of the uncertainty of a Cottbus team that had never played together in this constellation before.
B-Elf doesn’t work
Top performers like Axel Borgmann, the Cigerci brothers or Moritz Hannemann were not even in the squad. Instead, players like Ted Tattermusch or Jonas Hofmann, who had been injured for a long time, were allowed to play from the start.
When Energie did go forward, it was usually via the left and Anderson Lucoqui, but even this way the equalizer initially failed to materialize.
Shortly before the break, Jannis Boziaris had to be substituted injured – Lukas Michelbrink took over and was on the verge of equalizing with a volley, but VfB keeper Sebastian Mellack made a remarkable save (45th + 2).
More energy in the second half
Incidentally, one of the almost 10,300 spectators in the Leag Energie Stadium was Energie coach Claus-Dieter Wollitz, who made himself comfortable in the stands for this game and transferred all responsibility to his assistant coach Tobias Röder.
He couldn’t be satisfied so far, but apparently found the right words at halftime: Cottbus started the second half much more actively. Jonas Hofmann and Can Moustfa missed their chances shortly after the restart, but now there was a lot more fire in the game.
Among other things, because Energie called for a penalty twice but didn’t get the whistle. Instead, Ted Tattermusch even saw yellow for a swallow in the 54th minute because Krieschow goalkeeper Mellack hadn’t touched him at all.
Bulwark from Krieschow
And then Krischow suddenly upped the ante: Once again the Cottbus defense didn’t look good when Toby Michalski just had to push in after Pereira Rodrigues’ pass and increased it to 2-0.
Now Energie didn’t let up and after a foul on Moustfa it was really a penalty for Cottbus. Merveille Biankadi confidently converted to make it 2-1 (71st). But Krieschow threw himself into everything and defended with all his might.
Cottbus couldn’t find a way to score the equalizer and repeatedly failed because of the defensive bulwark of the upper league team or because of goalkeeper Mellack, who secured the victory with a brilliant save seconds before the final whistle. Afterwards it was clear: Krieschow was the national cup winner for the first time – and absolutely deserved it.
Broadcast: rbb|24, May 23, 2026, 11:30 a.m
Video: rbb|24, May 23, 2026, Caroline Labes and Christian Riedel
