17 years after the humiliation in Duisburg, RWE has inflicted similar suffering on MSV. One can only hope that the effects will not last as long as they did after Essen’s relegation in 2007.

May 20, 2007 will forever be a terrible memory for the fans of Rot-Weiss Essen. That was the end of what had been dramatically foreshadowed a week earlier.

RWE were leading 1:0 in the 2nd Bundesliga against Wacker Burghausen, who were already certain to be relegated, until the 90th minute – when Nicolas Ledgerwood came on and scored for Burghausen. Two points away, which would have been enough to keep the team out of relegation.

So they traveled to MSV Duisburg with this last-minute shock – and it came to the worst scenario for RWE fans. They lost 3-0 at MSV and were relegated from Bundesliga 2. At the same time, they had to watch the team from Meiderich celebrate their promotion to the Bundesliga.

Wounds that were certainly difficult to heal. It was therefore not surprising that large sections of the Essen supporters did not support their coach Christoph Dabrowski and captain Vinko Sapina, who were hoping for a derby win, but also for the “Zebras” to stay in the league, because these derbies are the salt in the soup.

Instead, it will have been a great satisfaction for RWE fans to see history repeat itself almost 17 years later – only in reverse. RWE played for promotion and probably gave MSV the final push towards relegation from the Regionalliga in front of a sold-out crowd in Essen.

In any case, all hopes of MSV staying in the league seem to have been extinguished. There are six matchdays left, 18 points to be awarded and MSV is eight points behind the safety margin.

This time, Duisburg are at rock bottom and one can only hope that they will recover more quickly than RWE did back then, should they really end up in fourth place. Because in the year after relegation, RWE failed dramatically against VfB Lübeck on the last matchday and did not qualify for the 3rd division.

This was followed by two years in the Regionalliga, insolvency and then promotion back to the Regionalliga. And it then took another eleven seasons before RWE found its way back into the 3rd division. May MSV be spared this fate, because we think so too. Derbies like RWE vs. MSV are simply a must – at least in the 3rd division…