The quarter-finals of the Lower Rhine Cup have been drawn – and it’s going to be a real showdown, pure tradition: KFC Uerdingen vs Rot-Weiss Essen.

Defending champions Rot-Weiss Essen must travel to KFC Uerdingen in the 2023/2024 Lower Rhine Cup quarter-finals. After MSV Duisburg, the Oberliga club will try to knock out the next third division team.

“That’s awesome. Pascale will be delighted,” Talarski’s wife Christina told Forecasting. The KFC midfielder’s wife answered her cell phone and later the former RWO regional league player himself called back: “Yes, my wife gave me the good news. A cool draw. It’s going to be full and loud in the stadium, what more could we want? It’s going to be awesome!”

And Marcus John, coach of the Krefeld team, was also delighted. “We’ll take it as it comes. And in this case, Rot-Weiss Essen is a dream draw. It’s the big name in this competition, the drawing card, defending champion and favorite. And it’s my former club. I’m delighted,” John, who played for RWE in the 1999/2000 season and later worked as assistant coach of the U19s under Sven Demandt, told Forecasting.

And how did RWE react to the draw? “Yes, of course we accept it and are looking forward to the game. There are no easy opponents in the quarter-finals and we are of course warned. After all, KFC knocked out our league rivals MSV,” says Christian Flüthmann, RWE sports director.

The quarter-finals are to be played in December and the semi-finals in March.

The quarter-finals at a glance

KFC Uerdingen (Oberliga) – Rot-Weiss Essen (3rd division) (quarter-final number 4)

SF Hamborn 07 (Oberliga) – Rot-Weiß Oberhausen (Regionalliga West) (quarter-final number 3)

Germania Ratingen (Oberliga) – SSVg Velbert (Regionalliga West) (quarter-final number 2)

SF Baumberg (Oberliga) – 1. FC Bocholt (Regionalliga West) (quarter-final number 1)

This is how the semi-finals continue

Winner quarter-final number 1 – Winner quarter-final number 3

Winner quarter-final number 4 – Winner quarter-final number 2