If everything stays as it is now and Energie Cottbus gets promoted to the 2. Bundesliga this summer, probably no one will think back to today’s matchday. But if that doesn’t happen and one or two points are missing in the end, some Cottbus fans will surely dig up the images and reports from matchday 24. That could really hurt.
During the match between Energie Cottbus and Waldhof Mannheim, there was a rather bizarre moment in stoppage time with the score at 1:1. In the 90+7th minute, Cottbus player Tolcay Cigerci sent a corner into the six-yard box. The ball went over Awortwie-Grant’s head, hit the underside of the crossbar, bounced off the Waldhof keeper’s hip, and finally back into play.
Everyone supporting Cottbus had already jumped up to celebrate—they had clearly seen the ball in the goal. Or had they? While the referee consulted with his assistants and ultimately did not award the goal, images that have since been published show that the ball was indeed—quite clearly, in fact—over the line.
Just as a reminder: There is no goal-line technology in the 3. Liga, and of course no VAR either.
The result stood, and instead of having two more points on the board thanks to a lucky punch, Energie had to settle for just one point in the promotion race.
Even after the final whistle, the game didn’t stop delivering oddities. For example, Energie coach Claus-Dieter Wollitz ended up knocking over the guests’ sporting director, Gerhard Zuber.
The discussion about the disallowed goal continued after the final whistle, leading to a minor scuffle. In the commotion, Wollitz stepped on Mannheim’s Zuber’s foot—according to his own account, of course, by accident. Afterwards, the Waldhof official fell backwards in spectacular fashion.
Shortly after, tempers calmed down again.
Speaking to ‘MagentaSport’ on the microphone, Wollitz defended the referees despite the disallowed goal. He did say that it was clearly a goal, but he didn’t want to blame the referees. He explained that the video assistant referee in the top two leagues has made them insecure. This insecurity is also noticeable in the 3. Liga—even though there is no VAR there.
This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.