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Cheering at Rot-Weiss Essen: The regional league team is back in professional football (archive photo from the 37th matchday)
Photo:
IMAGO/K.
Hoeft / IMAGO/frontalvision.com
15 years after being relegated from the 2nd Bundesliga, Rot-Weiss Essen is returning to professional football.
The traditional club, German champions from 1955, defeated West Rot Weiss Ahlen 2-0 (1-0) on the last matchday of the regional league and thus prevailed in the long-distance duel for promotion against Preußen Münster.
The Bundesliga founding member simultaneously won 2-1 (0-1) against the reserves of 1. FC Köln.
However, Munster should have won much more.
Both teams collected 87 points in the regional league with 20 clubs, in the end the goal difference decided for Essen.
Rot-Weiss ended the season with a goal difference of 84:32 (+52), Munster was just behind with 73:24 (+49).
Essen had parted ways with coach Christian Neidhart two games before the end of the season, sporting director Jörn Nowak took over and made promotion perfect.
Cedric Harenbrock (29th minute) and Simon Engelmann (60th) scored the goals for Essen in front of 16,650 spectators on Hafenstrasse.
In Münster, the hosts fell behind in front of 14,300 spectators through Joshua Schwirten (40th).
Thorben Deters (49th) and Marcel Hoffmeier (72nd) turned the game around.
Essen was last in the third division in 2007/2008, when the regional league was still directly below the 2nd Bundesliga.
The 1953 cup winner played a total of seven years in the Bundesliga, most recently in 1977. Munster, only in the Bundesliga in the first season, was relegated from the 3rd division in 2020.
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