Rot-Weiß Oberhausen have advanced to the quarter-finals of the Niederrheinpokal with a great performance, but now the focus turns back to the league. That’s what Stoppelkamp and Nowak have to say.

Once again, Rot-Weiß Oberhausen did not have an easy time of it in the Niederrhein Cup. In the round of 16, the regional league team was once again on the verge of elimination. Up until the 85th minute, the Red and Whites were trailing 2-0 against the Landesliga team 1. FC Monheim, before they actually scored four goals.

“That’s football. It’s a mistake sport. It’s all part of it. I’m proud of the fact that the boys pulled themselves together in the second half and believed in it. I’m also proud of the substitutes who turned the game around and got us out of the woods,” said a delighted coach Jörn Nowak after the final whistle.

RWO was already unable to convince in the second round of the Lower Rhine Cup. Against VfL Viktoria Jüchen-Garzweiler, the team was also unable to make it into the last sixteen for a long time, before they were only able to steer the game in the right direction late on.

“We’ve already seen that it’s not that easy in this competition. Other teams have already failed against lower-ranked opponents. So wipe your mouth and move on. What counts is the next round,” said the man who, with his goal to make it 1:2, once again steered the game in RWO’s direction, Moritz Stoppelkamp, tried to put the weak RWO performance into perspective.

Nowak focused on another positive point after the victory. Namely, the numerous Oberhausen fans who made their way to Monheim: “The victory brings the team and fans even closer together. That was outstanding support on a Tuesday for a Landesliga club. It’s not at all a matter of course that such a crowd of fans comes with us and supports us. Just like in the previous round, the fans played a big part in our surviving the round and making it to the quarter-finals.”

While the Kleeblätter can watch the rest of the round of 16 matches in the Niederrhein Cup at their leisure and wait for their next opponent, the next league match is already coming up at the weekend. The home game is against the second team of FC Schalke 04 (Sunday, October 29, 2 p.m.).

Nowak doesn’t want to draw any conclusions from the cup game for the league, though: “It’s a different competition. At the end of the day, we’re taking the positive feeling of being through to the next round. It can’t be compared to the league. We’ve defended a lot of counterattacks excellently in the past few weeks. It didn’t look so good in the cup.”