Essen finish home season with a flourish
RW Essen are back on top of the Regionalliga West table after they capitalised on rivals Borussia Dortmund II dropping points by beating Sportfreunde Lotte 5-2.
📸 18/20 ➕3️⃣!#nurderrwe #RWESFL #immeRWEiter pic.twitter.com/1LTgeHAf7F
— Rot-Weiss Essen (@rot_weiss_essen) May 27, 2021
The match
In their last home game of the season, Dennis Grote opened the scoring in the fourth minute, before Marco Kehl doubled the hosts’ lead 10 minutes later.
Cedric Harenbrock added a third in the 37th minute, before the visitors pulled one back via a goal from Emir Terzi.
Sandro Plechaty restored the three-goal deficit but Lotte replied a minute later with a third goal of the season from Exauce Andzouana.
Simon Engelmann rounded off the victory with his 28th goal of the season – the striker has scored eight goals more than any other player in the league and will pick up the Golden Boot at the end of the season.
What does it mean?
Essen bounced back in style to score five and climb back to the top of the league, albeit having played two games more. The result meant that Christian Neidhart’s side had stayed unbeaten at home for the whole season, winning 18 and drawing two – a tremendous record
Dortmund held
Borussia Dortmund II are still expected to secure promotion but they failed to maintain top spot as they were held to a 0-0 draw against SV Rödinghausen.
It meant that Rödinghausen had avoided defeat in both of their matches against BVB this season.
⏹ Ende der Partie. Heute ging leider nicht viel zusammen, es bleibt beim 0:0. Samstag geht’s weiter – mit Euch auf den Rängen! 🙌#BVBU23 pic.twitter.com/ePbROzIHPt
— POKALSIEGER 2021 (@BVB) May 26, 2021
The match
Enrico Maaßen’s side had more of the ball but were unable to fashion any major opportunites.
In the second half, Dortmund were indebted to their goalkeeper Luca Unbehaun, who tipped a long-range shot onto the woodwork.
However, the Black & Yellows also came close to taking the lead with top-scorer Steffen Tigges unable to convert a good opportunity in the 70th minute. Five minutes later, winger Richmond Tachie was unable to get the better of the Rödinghausen goalkeeper in a one-on-one situation.
What does it mean?
It was not to be for the visitors, who are a point behind RW Essen with two games in hand and need a maximum of five points from their final three games to finish top.
Their unbeaten run is now at 24 games, and they have yet to lose away from home this season.
Dortmund host relegation-threatened Homberg on Saturday. Rödinghausen are eighth with 55 points and have two games remaining.
