Rot-Weiss Erfurt is fighting for second place in a long-distance duel with Jena

For Rot-Weiss Erfurt, after missing out on the championship, it is still a matter of defending second place in the regional football league. After a 2-2 draw with PSG Kimi Leipzig, coach Fabian Gerber’s team is just one point ahead of FC Carl Zeiss Jena, who won 4-2 against Locke Leipzig. Now it comes to a long-distance duel between the two Thuringian rivals: Erfurt will play their last game of the season on Sunday at VSG Altglienicke (kick-off: 1pm), and Jena will welcome the second team of Hertha BSC at the same time. time. You can watch both matches live in the conference on MDR-TV as well as on sport-im-osten.de and in the SpiO app.

Even if the big title dream takes off, Coach Gerber, who announced an extension to his contract with RWE on Tuesday, wants to get serious about the end of the season: “We want to go into the break with a sense of accomplishment because the last few we’ve had,” he said in an introductory interview with Sports in the East. The matches have not been successful, in fact: Erfurt have won only one of their last five matches in the regional league – beating undefeated Germania Halberstadt 2-0.

But of course that last game is no longer a high priority – so it wouldn’t be surprising if Gerber brought in one replacement player or the other. He also referred to the corresponding plans in advance: “Of course you’re already thinking of giving a chance to a player who’s been with you all along,” and said: “In the end we still decide to perform, but we could be. We’ll rotate a little bit more in this game.”

The same applies to the opponent from the capital, who, after a mediocre first half of the season, began to catch up with six victories in a row, but could no longer interfere in the championship race – and it was no longer about anything for him. . Altglienicke is fifth, but has the best offense in the league with 65 goals along with champions Energie Cottbus. Like Erfurt, VSG stands for an attacking and attractive style of play – so there may be another “Football Festival” at the end. Fabian Gerber is also looking forward to “two quality teams and good individual players. The spectators will get their money’s worth”.