Promoted SV Elversberg storms towards the direct march through to the 2nd Bundesliga. The third division leaders just keep winning while the pursuers goof. The in-form VfL Osnabrück loses after seven wins in a row at home despite a clear lead.
The winning streak of VfL Osnabrück in the 3rd football league is over. Despite a 2-0 lead, coach Tobias Schweinsteiger's team lost 2-3 (1-0) to SpVgg Bayreuth, who were in danger of relegation. After seven wins in a row, the Lower Saxony conceded their first defeat. Robert Tesche (10th) and Erik Engelhardt (50th) each put their team in the lead from standard situations. In an exciting and hectic final phase, the promoted team turned the game around with goals from Christoph Fenninger (76'), Eroll Zejnullahu (86') and Agyemang Diawusie (90'). The winning goal scorer tore his shirt off while the VfL pros collapsed on the pitch.
Osnabrück dominated the game for a long time and still had good chances after the 2-0 lead. They were unlucky when Bayreuth's Cemal Kaymaz played the ball clearly with his hand in his own penalty area when the score was 2-2 and referee Lars Erbst still didn't award a penalty. In addition, Marc Heider only hit the crossbar after picking up the ball that bounced off Kaymaz' hand and shooting. With a win, the purple-whites would have jumped to fourth place, which would currently entitle them to relegation against the third from bottom of the 2nd Bundesliga, but the loss caused the Osnabrück team to slip to seventh place in the table for the time being.
League leaders SV Elversberg, on the other hand, celebrated their fifth win in a row. At the relegation candidate FSV Zwickau, the Saarlanders won 2-0 (0-0). Valdrin Mustafa (77th/90th 6) scored the crucial goals for SVE, which is having an outstanding season as a promoted team. Before the game started, Zwickau signed Ronny Thielemann as the new head coach. In the game against the leaders, the Saxons were still coached by interim coach Robin Lenk, who had inherited Joe Enochs after his dismissal.
SC Freiburg II scored three points by beating MSV Duisburg 2-0 (1-0) and is second in the table, but is not allowed to move up. Jonathan Schmid (10th/49th), who was loaned out from the Bundesliga squad, scored for the Breisgau team, who are eleven points behind. The previous second, SV Wehen Wiesbaden, lost 1:2 (0:1) against Erzgebirge Aue on Friday.
Meanwhile, 1. FC Saarbrücken lost 3:4 (2:1) against FC Ingolstadt and was therefore unable to catch up with SVWW. The Schanzer took a 1-0 lead thanks to a lightning goal by Tobias Bech (1st). Luca Kerber (8th) and Julian Günther-Schmidt (10th) turned the game around in the early stages. Pascal Testroet (50th) made it 2-2 before Kasim Rabihic (54th) shot FCS in front again. Tobias Bech (68th/80th) contributed the other guest goals.
Dynamo Dresden did not get past a 1-1 (1-1) draw against Viktoria Köln. Robin Meißner (12th) gave the Rhinelanders the lead, Dennis Borkowski (45th) equalized for the second division relegated team. Waldhof Mannheim won 3-1 (2-1) against SV Meppen, who were threatened with relegation. Marvin Pourie (10', penalty kick) gave the Emslanders the lead, but Marten Winkler (23') and Dominik Martinovic (31') made it 2-1 for the Palatinate. Fridolin Wagner (90.5) scored the final score.
