Dynamo Dresden let victorious Cottbuser come close again

Leipzig (dpa) -

Dresden cannot make the most of Saarbrücken's slip-up

Dynamo Dresden only made suboptimal use of the slip-up by runners-up 1. FC Saarbrücken. With a 1:1 draw at Rot-Weiss Essen, the league leaders once again gave away important points in the promotion race. This allowed Energie Cottbus to close the gap to one point. Dynamo coach Thomas Stamm was therefore annoyed. "In the end, it doesn't matter whether Saarbrücken lost yesterday and we didn't win," he said, adding: "It's pointless. I get the same question every week and it only gets really exciting on the last or second-last matchday. As long as we're at the top, anything is possible."

Dynamo went into the international break after the English week with two draws and one win. The Elbe club were lucky in the sold-out stadium on Hafenstrasse: After Ahmet Arslan made it 0:1 (50'), the former Dresden player was also able to score the second goal. "We didn't play our very best game and have to live with the one point," said Lukas Boeder on MagentaSport after he frenetically celebrated his first goal of the season to equalize (65') in his home city.

During the upcoming international break, Stamm wants to "take a breather" with his team and focus on standard situations in training. A test match against Czech first division side FK Teplice is also scheduled for next Thursday.

Cottbus close in on Dynamo with victory

Energie Cottbus are back in the promotion race. With the lucky 1:0 (0:0) at SV Sandhausen, the Lusatians achieved their first win in five games. Tolcay Cigerci (71) converted a controversial penalty at Sandhausen's Hardtwaldstadion on Sunday to secure the away win. As a result, coach Claus-Dieter Wollitz's team overtook 1. FC Saarbrücken and are now just one point behind Dynamo Dresden in second place. "Very, very important, you have to get a game like this over the line," said goalscorer Cigeri.

In a dominant first half, the Lusatians failed to take the lead. Lucas Copado missed the best chance from a free position (27'). After the break, Cottbus came under increasing pressure and had to survive several dicey situations. Offensively, the Lusatians benefited from an extremely controversial penalty decision by referee Patrick Alt. Lucas Copado was brought down by Jonas Weik on the right edge of the penalty area. However, the TV images could not resolve whether the foul was actually on the penalty line and therefore penalty-worthy.