What drama no one could have expected. MSV Duisburg struggled against state league team Union Nettetal – shortly before the end, even the crossbar saved Duisburg.

MSV Duisburg faced regional league team Union Nettetal in the second round of the Lower Rhine Cup on Wednesday evening. In the end, MSV won, but not as expected. The Meiderich team had to go into extra time at 2-1 and continued to struggle there.

MSV coach Dietmar made eight changes to the team that secured a crazy 3-2 victory in the 3rd division against SC Verl. Only Maximilian Dittgen, Tobias Fleckstein, and Steffen Meuer remained in the starting lineup. The two most recently signed strikers, Andy Visser and Florian Krüger, as well as goalkeeper Omer Hanin, made their competitive debut for Meiderich.

However, MSV got off to a slow start. There were hardly any noteworthy offensive actions in the first half. Therefore, the score was surprisingly 0-0 after 45 minutes. The underdogs did not just hide in their own half. MSV lacked almost everything. There were two half-chances through Conor Noß and Dittgen. After the break, Hirsch made three substitutions. But it was a penalty that put MSV on the road to victory. Noß cut inside and was brought down by Branimir Galic. Substitute Thilo Töpken grabbed the ball and confidently converted to make it 1-0.

Anyone who thought the game would now take the expected turn was mistaken. Three minutes later, the underdogs scored the equalizer—and deservedly so. Substitute Noel Gergorec scored the equalizer after a great pass from Niklas Götte.

The score remained unchanged: Nettetal sensed that something was possible, while MSV failed to get into the game. Hirsch reacted again, bringing on Jan-Simon Symalla – who created a double chance shortly before the end that would have deserved to make it 2-1. But Symalla and Fleckstein both missed.

And then came the moment of shock for MSV. In the 88th minute, Tomi Alexandrov hit the crossbar, which would have meant the end of the second round. So the game went into extra time. And here, Töpken redeemed Duisburg with his 2-1 goal in the 109th minute after a pass from Symalla.

Nettetal’s next game in the Landesliga is on Sunday (September 14, 3:30 p.m.) at SSV Bergisch Born. MSV will face SV Wehen Wiesbaden at home in the 3rd division on Saturday (September 13, 2 p.m.).