Rot-Weiss Essen managed to secure a lucky point against VfB Stuttgart II just before the final whistle. Uwe Koschinat was quite satisfied with the 1-1 draw.

16,187 spectators came to the stadium on Hafenstraße on Friday evening to watch Rot-Weiss Essen win. Okay: Maybe not the 87 fans who came from Stuttgart. They saw a strong young squad from VfB.

The RWE fans, too, will likely remember such highly talented gems as Mansour Ouro-Tagba, Samuele Di Benedetto, Lauri Penna, Noah Darvich, or Efe Korkut and perhaps continue to follow their careers.

Because what the Stuttgart U23 team showed at Hafenstraße was truly commendable. Courageous, strong in play, and dominant: that’s how Nico Willig’s team presented itself.

No wonder he had a hard time accepting the 1-1 draw. He told “Magenta Sport”: “I’m not satisfied with the 1-1. We played a great away game. We kept the opponent so far away from our goal for 87 minutes. There were no critical situations in front of our net. That was strong. Unfortunately, only until the 87th minute.”

That was an incredibly exhausting game for us. We were dominated in many areas. It was very tiring for the team to constantly chase after Stuttgart during their many long periods of possession. A point like this is definitely worth something at this stage of the season

Uwe Koschinat

Uwe Koschinat, on the other hand, was satisfied with the closing stages. He once again proved his knack for making the right substitutions by bringing on Marek Janssen. First, Ahmet Arslan missed a penalty, and in the very next play, substitute Janssen converted a cross to make it 1-1—his third goal as a substitute and Essen’s twelfth goal of the season coming off the bench.

Unlike Willig, Koschinat was quite content with the 1-1 draw. Even the RWE coach had to acknowledge Stuttgart’s dominance. “That was an incredibly exhausting game for us. We were outplayed in many areas. It was very tiring for the team to constantly chase after the Stuttgart players during their many long periods of possession. A point like this is definitely worth something at this stage of the season,“ Koschinat noted.

Felix Wienand, who filled in for the ailing Jakob Golz, received special praise: ”He made some very strong saves in many situations. He only found out that morning that he was playing. That was really impressive.”