Rot-Weiß Oberhausen followed suit with RWE and MSV. The clover leaves triumphed over VfB Homberg and can continue to dream of winning the Lower Rhine Cup.

After MSV Duisburg and Rot-Weiss Essen had already managed to beat an Oberliga team and thus march into the quarter-finals of the Niederrhein Cup, it was also time for Rot-Weiß Oberhausen to take action on Tuesday evening.

The cloverleaves had to deal with VfB Homberg, a top team in the Oberliga Niederrhein. After last weekend’s 3-1 defeat to Fortuna Cologne, Sebastian Gunkel’s team redeemed themselves and, after a hard-fought game, celebrated their entry into the last eight teams in the Niederrhein region with a 1-0 victory.

The decisive man on the night was Denis Donkor, who scored the visitors’ first competitive goal of the season (57th minute) to reward their best spell. “Of course it’s great that Denis has finally scored in a competitive game. Everyone is particularly pleased about that,” noted coach Gunkel.

But he also knows that his clovers have to give a big thank you to goalkeeper Kevin Kratzsch. The keeper kept the score at 0-0 in the 23rd minute with a great reflex save against Julian Bode. “In the first half, ‘Kev’ kept us in the game (laughs). No, he made a really great save,” said Gunkel.

The team in third place in the Oberliga Niederrhein definitely gave the Oberhauseners a hard time. In the end, however, the cloverleaves were able to celebrate. “Homberg did really well and kept the spaces very compact. I think we tried to get into the spaces in a variety of ways and we deserved to win. We hardly allowed anything. Especially in the second half, we defended everything away,” the coach summed up afterwards.

For Stefan Janßen, the dream of beating MSV Duisburg has thus been dashed, but his team did more than just sell themselves dearly. However, he still struggles with the chance after 23 minutes and the phase after the restart: ”There is a fine line between being able to and having to. Who knows how it would have ended. Of course, this phase also annoys me because we can do better and it was not a time when our strength waned.”

In the cup, it’s all about winning or flying and we’re out now. Then we’ll just have to wait for the game against MSV in the cup next year.

Stefan Janßen

But despite this phase and the associated elimination from the cup, Janßen is proud of his team: “I have to give my team a huge compliment. We did our work, ploughed ahead and took on the duels for 90 minutes. We weren’t as convincing going forward, but they are a top team in the Regionalliga. In the cup, it’s all about winning or flying out, and we’re out now. We’ll just have to wait until next year for the cup tie against MSV,” joked the 54-year-old.

As was the case for VfB Hilden and SSVg Velbert, the focus for Homberg is now fully on the league. There, the Janßen team will host the undefeated SSVg (October 19, 6 p.m.) RWO is also expecting a home game (October 19, 2 p.m.). SC Wiedenbrück is traveling to the Niederrhein Stadium to live up to its role as Oberhausen’s bogey team.