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Essen (dpa) - Regional league team Rot-Weiss Essen continues its cup fairy tale and is in the quarter-finals after a great fight against Bayer Leverkusen.

The club with the lowest level in the competition won against last year's finalists in the constant rain in Essen with 2: 1 (0: 1, 0: 0) after extra time and reached the top eight for the first time in 27 years.

The embarrassed Leverkusen, who had dominated the game for a long time, are in a real crisis after only four points from six Bundesliga games.

Leon Bailey (105th) scored first for Bayer, but Oguzhan Kefkir (108th) and Simon Engelmann (118th) ensured that RWE remained unbeaten in the 33rd competitive game within a year.

The Engelmann hit was checked for a long time - but it counted.

Before that, the traditional club and cup winner from 1953 had eliminated Arminia Bielefeld and Fortuna Düsseldorf.

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Bayer had traveled to Essen with clear intentions.

After defending champions FC Bayern were eliminated in the second round, the chance of winning the cup seemed bigger than it has been in a long time.

"That's how many other clubs think too," Bayer sports director Rudi Völler said shortly before the kick-off on Sky.

National player Kerem Demirbay was quoted in the morning by the DFB with the words: "We want to bring the pot to Leverkusen."

His coach Peter Bosz was not entirely satisfied in the beginning.

As expected, the Bundesliga team dominated, Edmond Tapsoba gave the first warning shot on the Essen goal early on (3rd).

The Werkself struggled to build up the game on the visibly battered turf.

"Brave!

Brave! », RWE coach Christian Neidhart called out to his players, who kept up, but came under increasing pressure as the playing time increased.

The greatest Bayer chance in the first half was missed by Patrik Schick, who was initially used as a center forward with Lucas Alario.

His header landed on the post (24th).

Essen's Marco Kehl-Gómez shot just wide of the Leverkusen goal in the 40th minute - it remained the hosts' best chance for a long time.

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Before the break, Bayer had to do without the ailing Karim Bellarabi, Moussa Diaby came in for him (44th).

In the second half, Bosz switched back to the familiar 4-3-3 system with two more changes.

Diaby missed the next chance to lead Bayer (49th).

Davari also cleared class against Tapsoba (51.).

Bayer forced the regional division back into their own half during this phase.

Again and again the guests got promising final positions, Davari was challenged again and again like against Leon Bailey (60th).

The Leverkusenern ran out of ideas, RWE earned a thrilling final phase with a great fight.

Shortly before the end of the regular playing time, the hosts were also very lucky when Diaby's shot rang off the other post (89th) and Davari fended off the margin.

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210202-99-275489 / 3

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