Before the season began, it was assumed that Fortuna Köln and RWO would play for promotion right to the end. Things turned out differently.

Instead of a duel for promotion to the 3rd division, there will be a duel of the disappointed between Fortuna Köln and Rot-Weiß Oberhausen in the Regionalliga West on Saturday (2 p.m.).

Both traditional clubs have buried their promotion hopes in recent weeks. Alemannia Aachen are playing too confidently, Fortuna and RWO are not playing consistently enough.

What they both have in common is their record in recent weeks, with both teams only winning two of their last seven matches. While Fortuna Cologne are nine points behind the leaders, RWO and Aachen are already separated by twelve points.

And neither team is lying to itself at the moment, with Cologne in particular being self-critical of the situation on their homepage. After the draw at SV Lippstadt, there was this headline on the homepage. “Fortuna only 2:2 at last place – A performance as bumpy as the pitch.”

A short time later, the team was knocked out of the national cup at home against 1. FC Düren, and the next headline was: “Out of the cup: Fortuna collapses like a house of cards against Düren after being sent off.”

Nevertheless, Fortuna coach Markus von Ahlen is optimistic that his team will continue to achieve the maximum, even if the goals are likely to be missed. On the Cologne homepage, he emphasized ahead of the clash against the “cloverleaves”: “I’m not worried that we’ll let the season slip away now. That’s not my mentality and it’s not the team’s mentality either. We still want maximum success in every game.”

He will have to do without six players against RWO (the first leg ended 0-0). Maik Kegel (rehab after knee surgery), Kingsley Sarpei (rehab after knee surgery), Joshua Eze, Danny Breitfelder (both muscular problems), Finn Bauens (knee injury) and Gianluis Di Fine (ankle injury) will miss out against the fifth-placed team in the table