Oberliga club Ratingen 04/19 put in a committed performance at Rot-Weiss Essen and only lost 3:1. Coach Martin Hasenpflug praised his team.
The biggest game in the club’s history awaited Ratingen 04/19 on Wednesday evening: In the semi-final of the Lower Rhine Cup, the promotion hopefuls from the Oberliga Niederrhein were guests of third-division side Rot-Weiss Essen.
Both teams had swapped home ground, which is why this semi-final was played at Hafenstrasse. Ahead of the clash, defender Phil Spillmann was full of attacking spirit: “We’re fierce and want to reach the final, so we’ll give it our all.”
However, the big dream did not come true: The Oberliga team deservedly lost 3:1 (2:1) at Hafenstraße. However, the underdogs put up a brave fight and put in a more than decent performance. Visiting coach Martin Hasenpflug, who was proud of his team’s performance, had a similar view:
“We had some good relays in the game and were also relatively stable. Of course, that’s extremely difficult to defend against. One example: Birol Adibelli plays against an opponent who has a market value of 600,000 euros and is on loan from 1. FC Köln (Marvin Obuz, editor’s note). That’s a huge difference. A big compliment to my team. To lose 1:3 as a first division team against a good third division team is something to be proud of. We’re satisfied with our performance, but Essen deserved to progress. “
I thought it was great that we were able to mobilize so many people from Ratingen. It was of course a great experience and we did a good job of promoting the club.
Martin Hasenpflug
The 47-year-old also paid a big compliment to the 500 or so spectators from Ratingen who came along: “I thought it was great that we were able to mobilize so many people from Ratingen. Of course, it was a great experience and we did a good job of promoting the club. It’s just fun to play in a beautiful stadium in front of a good crowd. “
For Ratingen, the Oberliga Niederrhein continues on Sunday (April 14, 3 p.m.) with a home match against relegation-threatened promoted team Mülheimer FC. After submitting the license documents for the Regionalliga West on time, RSV has promotion in its own hands. The lead over KFC Uerdingen is four points.
On May 12, the two top teams will face off in the Ratingen stadium. It could be the decisive match for promotion. However, RSV are not putting too much pressure on themselves. “We didn’t start the season with the goal of promotion. That’s just the way the situation has turned out,” explained the coach.