The first two semi-finalists in the Lower Rhine Cup have been decided. There was a surprise in Ratingen.

The first two quarter-finals in the Lower Rhine Cup have been played. And Rot-Weiß Oberhausen left nothing to be desired against Oberliga side SF Hamborn 07 with a 7:0 win.

The home team was swapped and the regional league side RWO quickly made it clear who would be progressing to the semi-finals in their own Niederrhein stadium. The score was 2:0 after just 22 minutes.

Christian März made it 1:0 after eleven minutes when he had too much space 14 meters in front of goal and curled the ball into the far corner. Eight minutes later, it was Cottrell Ezekwem who decided the game early on. He got his foot to a cross and finished with a little help from the visitors’ keeper to make it 2:0.

And after a foul on Rinor Rexha, Moritz Stoppelkamp converted shortly before the break to make it 3:0 at half-time. The match was finally decided. Denis Donkor made it 4:0 three minutes after coming on as a substitute in the second half, with Sebastian Mai and Pierre Fassnacht making it 5:0 and 6:0 respectively. Rexha scored the final goal to make it 7-0 in front of 1124 spectators.

The second quarter-final also pitted Oberliga against Regionalliga side Ratingen 04/19 at home to SSVg Velbert.

And they took advantage of this in a 2:1 victory, helped by a scene shortly after the break. In the first half, the fourth-division side from Velbert took the lead through Markus Pazurek – and it remained 1-0 for SSVg after 45 minutes.

Shortly after the changeover, Pazurek was again the focus of attention, seeing yellow and yellow-red in the space of a few seconds in the 47th minute. The top team from Ratingen took advantage of the superior numbers.

First it was Phil Spillmann who made it 1:1. Later, ex-professional Moses Lamidi scored shortly after coming on as a substitute to make it 2:1 for the lower-ranked team. When Vedran Beric was shown a yellow card for Velbert, the game was decided. Velbert could not come back with nine men.

It didn’t help that Bo Lasse Henrichs on the Ratingen side also saw the red card deep into stoppage time.

Overview of the quarter-final in the Lower Rhine Cup

Ratingen 04/19 – SSVg Velbert 2:1

Rot-Weiß Oberhausen – SF Hamborn 07 6:0

Tuesday, February 6, 2024, 7:30 p.m. Sportfreunde Baumberg – 1. FC Bocholt

Not yet scheduled

KFC Uerdingen – Rot-Weiss Essen

Semi-final

Winner from Baumberg / Bocholt – RWO

Winner from Uerdingen / RWE – Ratingen