Alemannia Aachen cannot be satisfied with the 3:3 draw against Rot-Weiss Essen. The Kaiserstadt team did a lot of things right, but were very unlucky in one situation, says coach Mersad Selimbegovic.

For Aachen coach Mersad Selimbegovic, it was the most controversial moment of the game: with the score at 3-2 to Alemannia Aachen, Rot-Weiss Essen was awarded a free kick just left of the penalty area in the 88th minute. Franci Bouebari had gone down, Omar Sillah had blocked the ball.

This gave Essen another chance, and Dickson Abiama crowned his debut with his second goal of the day to make it 3-3. Essen then celebrated frenetically, which led to a scuffle and, among other things, a fifth yellow card for Michael Schultz.

For Selimbegovic, however, one topic dominated after the game: the decision to award a free kick before the 3-3. “I have to be careful with the gentlemen who referee the game,” he said in a very serious tone. “I have to pull myself together week after week. It’s hard to make a decision to block the ball at such a stage of the game. It’s always these little things that go against us.”

Little things on a day when Aachen did a lot of things right overall. “There can really only be one winner. That’s us,” said Selimbegovic. Mika Schroers put Alemannia ahead after seven minutes, Pierre Nadjombe (35′) and Schroers again (46′) more than compensated for Kaito Mizuta’s (22′) equalizer.

“We’re heading in the right direction, and we’re doing it the right way. What we did made sense. We have to focus on the positives. At some point, there will be games where not every shot on goal goes in against us and we don’t have to score two, three, or four goals to win.”

After 85 minutes, Essen, who felt defeated, came back with a shot from 20 meters by Abiama (85th minute) and the newcomer’s second goal after that controversial free kick. “We will cope with this and we have to cope with this. Give everything, step on the gas, and then we have to get that little bit of luck on our side. There can really only be three points for us. In soccer, as in life, there is no justice, but somewhere it will even out,” concluded Selimbegovic. Should Aachen get that justice in their next home game on Saturday, February 21, at 2 p.m., RWE would certainly have no objection: Alemannia will be hosting SC Verl.