The statistics alone show how difficult the 90 minutes were for RWE against Hoffenheim II. The visitors had 16 corners, so Essen coach Uwe Koschinat was understandably relieved after the game.

Rot-Weiss Essen has done it again, as Essen coach Uwe Koschinat noted after the 3-1 home win against TSG Hoffenheim. Once again, RWE delivered under pressure.

After the unexpected 1-6 defeat at Waldhof Mannheim, the pressure was on, but as so often, Koschinat’s team was able to respond. Until Jannik Mause’s brace, however, it was clear that the 1-6 defeat in Mannheim was still weighing heavily on RWE.

Koschinat agreed: “Despite the victory, there are things we need to talk about. I noticed that the 1-6 defeat wasn’t so easy to shake off. But under my leadership, we’ve always been able to respond very positively to setbacks. However, that can’t be automatic. In the first few minutes, we were very focused on keeping a tight defense.”

And Essen proved to be very efficient up front. Visiting coach Stefan Kleineheismann criticized the double mistake by former Essen player Amaimouni-Echghouyab Ayoube, who tried to clear the ball but ended up giving away a throw-in that ultimately led to the 1-0 goal.

Mause then scored the second goal, and Koschinat explained: “It was typical that the second goal followed immediately after the opener. That was typical center forward play. We produced some outstanding individual performances. For example, Lukas Brumme’s free kick before the 2-0. That was a decisive moment in the game.“

Up front, few chances were needed to score And defensively, the team was solid against this technically skilled opponent, with RWE allowing few big chances. Koschinat: ”We also had to defend an incredible number of set pieces. In the end, there were 16 corners, and we failed to defend one. But it was a very stable performance. I’m very happy that we got a win against a top team. Especially in our situation, that was a really good step. I have to compliment the boys for reacting the way they did.”