Coach Sandro Wagner and SpVgg Unterhaching have fought for a good starting position in the fight for promotion to the 3rd division.
In a heated game, Bayern won the relegation first leg at Energie Cottbus, deservedly, 2-1 (2-1). Niclas Anspach (6th) and Mathias Fetsch (37th) scored for Haching in the Stadion der Hoffnung, for Claus-Dieter Wollitz’s team Jonas Hildebrandt (14th) scored the equalizer with a hand penalty.
Cottbus showed some insecurities on the defensive, so the guests got the better chances. Nevertheless, the second leg promises a lot of excitement – the final decision will be made on Sunday in Unterhaching (1 p.m. / BR and Magenta Sport).
Before the game, both Wagner and Wollitz had expressed their annoyance at the promotion regulations of the regional leagues – as champions they were not automatically seeded, since the five regional leagues only receive four promotion places.
According to a rotating system, a relegation between the divisions North, Northeast and Bavaria is held every year – this time between Unterhaching (Bavaria) and Cottbus (Northeast).
VfB Lübeck (North) was “lucky” to go straight up the ladder this year. The same applies to Prussia Münster (West) and SSV Ulm (Southwest), whose leagues have fixed promotion places due to “conurbations”.
The voices of the game from “MagentaSport”:
Cottbus coach Claus-Dieter Wollitz: “First of all, we concede stupid goals and we also happily get a penalty. But the two goals conceded are too easy in such decisive games, a bit too cheap… Whenever we played football, it was fine. But we were too hectic in many situations … We’re in a different situation on Sunday than today because of certain players… Apart from the last game, we’ve won the last 7 or 8 away games and we’ve been strong in all of them.”
Cottbus’ Jonas Hildebrandt: “You could see who was the more experienced team here and who wasn’t. That’s what broke our necks a bit in the first half. We were a bit impressed by the situation, by the crowd. We don’t have them We put balls on the pitch that we’ve shown throughout the season. Still, not much has happened. We have a final on Sunday and the second half shows who the fitter team is and that we still have a lot of work to do.”
Unterhaching’s Simon Skarlatidis: “It was an incredible game with an incredible intensity. It had what a relegation game needs. Both teams kept their hearts on the pitch. Compliments to my squad: what we did today was insane. We will continue like this, to the bitter end.” He was always directly involved in both goals and was close to his own goal. But he “doesn’t give a damn about who scored the goal. Even if we all shoot them in together, I don’t care either.” On the discussions leading up to and preparing for it: “We prepared ourselves crazy, crazy, crazy and also everything in the fairest sense in my opinion. We had nothing to do with the other thing… A brutal witch’s cauldron here, it’s really fun made to play football. I’m looking forward to the second leg.”