Rot-Weiss Essen narrowly missed victory in a heated duel with Dynamo Dresden on the 10th match day of the 3rd division. Viktoria Cologne lost to leaders Elversberg.
RWE had to settle for a 1-1 (1-0) draw in front of 18,300 spectators in the stadium on Hafenstrasse on Saturday afternoon, although the newly promoted side was outnumbered for a long time.
Before the game, the captains of both teams read statements against violence, which received applause. It remained peaceful in the completely filled ranks during the game.
RWE dominates, Young slapstick goal
The first chances of the game were scored by Kefkir (6th/9th) and Berlinski for RWE (6th), who attacked early in the early stages and set the tone. After that, Essen remained game-determined, but only rarely to the end. Until the 20th minute, when Andreas Wiegel volleyed the ball from the edge of the penalty area to the crossbar.
Shortly thereafter, RWE took the lead through a slapstick goal. Dynamo goalkeeper Stefan Drljaca shot Essen’s Isaiah Young while trying to clear a back pass. The ball bounced off his hip into the Dresden goal, giving the home side a deserved lead (23′). And RWE stayed on the trigger, controlling the game at will. Only a long-range shot by Michael Akoto in the 38th minute posed a slight goal threat for the guests.
Wiegel sees red
Even after the break, RWE dominated the game and spoke up straight away with a double chance from Young and Felix Götze (47′). A little later, however, the Essen team decimated themselves. Wiegel saw the red card for an alleged assault on Jonathan Meier (52nd). The Essener is said to have kicked after a foul by Meier. RWE coach Christoph Dabrowski reacted and brought in defender Mustafa Kourouma for Götze to replace Wiegel (56′).
Schäffler hits just before the end
With a majority, Dresden gradually got stronger without creating any real chances to score, while RWE had chances to counterattack. Only after a corner did Dresden become really dangerous for the first time. Tim Knipping’s header was brilliantly parried by RWE goalkeeper Jakob Golz (79′). Golz also thwarted Dennis Borkowski’s attempt shortly afterwards (80′).
In an exciting final phase, Dresden threw everything forward and was rewarded with the equalizer. After a corner, RWE couldn’t clear the ball and Manuel Schäffler scored from close range to make it 1-1 (89′).
Viktoria loses against leaders
For Viktoria Köln, on the other hand, there was nothing to gain in the 0:2 (0:0) defeat against leaders SV 07 Elversberg. It was the very first meeting between these two clubs.
The game started with two longer treatment breaks for the Viktoria players Patrick Sontheimer and Patrick Koronkiewicz, who were both able to continue playing. The home side were the more active team in the early stages, but didn’t really pose a threat in front of goal. Elversberg became more active during the first half, but was only dangerous when Valdrin Mustafa shot from the side in the 45th minute. So it remained at the performance-oriented 0:0 before the break.
Shortly after the break, the guests took the lead with their first shot at the Cologne goal. Robin Fellhauer made it 1-0 for the league leaders (49th). Viktoria coach Olaf Janßen came on after an hour and André Becker introduced himself with a great chance (64th). However, the next goal came again on the other side, when full-back Fellhauer scored his second goal with the 2-0 (69th). In the period that followed, Viktoria tried to get the goal back, but in the end had to admit defeat without a goal of their own.
