1. FC Bocholt will face Rot-Weiss Essen on Tuesday evening (7 p.m., RevierSport live ticker). For four Bocholt players it is a duel against their former club.

What do Jeffrey Obst, Gino Windmüller, Kevin Grund, Marcel Platzek and Sascha Voelcke (currently on loan) have in common? All five once played for Rot-Weiss Essen and now face RWE with their current club 1. FC Bocholt: on Tuesday (7 p.m., RevierSport live ticker), in the Niederrheinpokal semi-final.

One or two RWE fans might wish for someone like Platzek, who scored 85 goals and set up 55 others in 266 games for Rot-Weiss Essen. After all, the former favourite of the Essen public has not been spared the third-division club’s storming misery.

RevierSport spoke to the 32-year-old Platzek, who has scored ten times in 18 competitive games for Bocholt this season, before the game.

Marcel Platzek, how fired up are you for this duel on Tuesday?

Of course I’m tingling. Kevin Grund and I have already had the honour of having a farewell game organised for us. I’m very grateful to the RWE club for that. Now, who would have thought it, we will meet in the Niederrheinpokal semi-final. For us, there are only two games left until the DFB Cup. We’ll also be looking for our chance against Rot-Weiss.

With Marcel Platzek? Because your deployment isn’t at all certain yet, is it?

I was flat for a fortnight with the flu. It hit me really hard. I felt like shit, there’s no other way to put it. But now I’m fit again and we still have training on Monday evening. I’m assuming that I’ll be there on Tuesday as well.

Are you still in contact with RWE?

Of course, it’s all flattened out a bit. But of course: I had to get some tickets for the game, too, and I’ve also been contacted by many fans who remember the good old RWE days. I have the most contact with Peter Sommer. For those who don’t know him, but I can’t imagine they do (laughs), he’s the team manager in Essen. He has always been an important reference person for me. Peter and me: it just fits. I’m looking forward to seeing him and many others again on Tuesday.

Some fans would perhaps like to see you in the RWE jersey at the moment. What do you think about the striker misery and the poor run of the Red and Whites?

That’s how it is with us strikers. At the end of the day, you’re measured by goals. I know that too. But I think they will score goals again. I follow the RWE season, of course. A lot on reviersport.de and of course via the ticker or also Radio Hafenstraße. I’m sure that RWE will stay in the league in the end.

And 1st FC Bocholt?

That should also work out! Anything else would be a disappointment, even after the recent withdrawal of 1. FC Kaan-Marienborn.