MSV Duisburg is still in the throes of a crisis. Rot-Weiss Essen won the derby against the Zebras 2-1 – the winning goal for Essen came in injury time.

MSV Duisburg lost 1:2 (0:1) to Rot-Weiss Essen in front of almost 26,000 fans at the home arena. Essen is getting a whiff of the promotion places, while MSV remains at the bottom of the table.

Rot-Weiss Essen got off to the better start and MSV Duisburg had Vincent Müller to thank for the fact that the guests from Hafenstraße were not already leading after three minutes.

What had happened? After a mistake by Santiago Castaneda, Essen captain Vinko Sapina made strong ground and passed to Isaiah Young, who was all alone in front of the goal but was stopped by Müller.

And it continued towards the zebras’ goal – the next dangerous attack by Essen after eight minutes: Cedric Harenbrock played the ball to Young, whose cross in the middle was not taken. It would have been very dangerous otherwise.

The hosts were visibly unsettled. They seemed too nervous and hardly anything was happening up front. Not RWE. The red and whites had Duisburg pinned in their own half after about half an hour.

The 33rd minute: Harenbrock again set up Young, who could actually finish in the box, but he kicked the ground and missed the ball. Just a minute later, Lucas Brumme had the chance to make it 1-0, but he was stopped from close range by the strong Müller, who kept Duisburg in the game. After the power play of the Esseners, there were also loud whistles from the Duisburg audience. Young (43rd) once again tested Müller from a distance, but he held the ball again. What the team of Boris Schommers showed in the first 45 minutes was simply not enough.

And Schommers must have found the right words during the break. Because the way the MSV came out of the dressing room made one or two people in the stadium wonder whether they were really the same players as in the first 45 minutes. The zebras started like a fire brigade.

They bombarded the Essen goal from all angles after the restart. But Alexander Esswein (47′), a Thomas Pledl corner (48′), which was headed onto his own goal by an Essen foot, and a double chance by Chinedu Ekene and Pledl (49′), who tried a bicycle kick, were stopped by the outstanding RWE keeper Jakob Golz.

RWE had to stabilize and catch their breath. The MSV had ended its power play for the time being. And in the phase when it became quiet, RWE struck – in the person of Marvin Obuz.

The substitute ex-Duisburg Andreas Wiegel cheated his way through, Obuz pulled in from the right and hammered the ball from 18 meters into the top left corner. What a dream goal with the left foot – the away end exploded. 1-0 RWE after 63 minutes.

It looked like RWE would celebrate their first derby win since April 16, 1983 – when Essen won 2-0 in Duisburg – at MSV. But then came the 90th minute: Robin Müller crossed and Sapina headed the ball into his own goal, 1-1! Anyone who thought that was the end of it was proven wrong.

First, substitute Benjamin Girth (90.+1) failed against the outstanding Golz, then on the other side: Felix Götze crossed and Mustafa Korouma headed – goal: 2:1 for Rot-Weiss Essen (90.+3)! First Essen victory in over 40 years.