Rot-Weiss Essen face Viktoria Köln in an English week. This is the starting eleven that RWE coach Christoph Dabrowski will send into the third league match.
It has been some time since Rot-Weiss Essen last won a match in the 3rd Division. If you exclude the green-table result of the abandoned match against FSV Zwickau at the end of the pre-season, the last victory dates back to 1 April – RWE beat SC Freiburg II 2:0. And it has been a good nine months since the last success away from home.
Viktoria Köln – Rot-Weiss Essen: Follow in the live ticker here
These negative streaks should come to an end on Wednesday evening. New season, new luck? That will become clear when the Essen team plays its first away game of the season at Viktoria Köln (7 p.m.).
For the match, coach Christoph Dabrowski changes his starting eleven on four positions compared to the 1:1 against Erzgebirge Aue. Captain Felix Bastians is not in the starting line-up. He got stuck in the turf against Aue and suffered an adductor strain.
The part of the veteran in the centre of defence will probably be taken over by Felix Götze, who will move into the team. Also new: Mustafa Kourouma, Björn Rother and Ron Berlinski. Andreas Wiegel, Thomas Eisfeld and Marvin Obuz will be on the bench. The squad also includes U19 talent Yann Friessner.
As in the previous games, Fabian Rüth (cruciate ligament rupture), Sandro Plechaty (knee problems), Nils Kaiser (torn inner ligament), Aaron Manu (Achilles tendon irritation plus infection) and Ekin Celebi (groin problems) are not part of the squad.
Meanwhile, Viktoria Köln will start the match with an unchanged starting line-up. The strong start to the season with victories against Verl (3:1) and Saarbrücken (2:1) gave coach Olaf Janßen no reason to make any changes.
Viktoria – RWE: How they play
Viktoria Köln: Voll – Greger, Fritz, Schultz – May, Russo, Henning, Koronkiewiecz – Bogicevic, Marseiler – Philipp
Rot-Weiss Essen: Golz – Brumme, Rios Alonso, Götze, Kourouma – Sapina, Rother – Müsel, Young – Doumbouya, Berlinski