FC Erzgebirge Aue failed to make the leap into the top flight of the 3rd Football League. The team of Pavel Dotchev, who played his 333rd third division match as coach on Wednesday, lost 1-0 (0-1) at SV Sandhausen. Alexander Mühling (31st minute) scored the decisive goal with a foul penalty. Sandhausen climbed to fourth place with their first third league win against Aue. The Saxons slipped to eleventh place and thus remain stuck in mid-table.
Jens Keller's heavily depleted team made two changes to the starting eleven after the win in Dresden, with Christoph Ehlich and Felix Göttlicher starting in place of the ill Abu-Bekir El-Zein and the suspended Alexander Fuchs. Aue remained unchanged after the Essen win. The Erzgebirge side also had the first chance, but Marco Schikora's volley (22') went just wide. Mirnes Pepic then fouled Sandhausen's Markus Fink and Mühling (31) converted the penalty with a low left-footed finish. Shortly afterwards, Aue keeper Martin Männel (33) prevented the 0:2 with a brilliant save from Fink.
After the changeover, Pepic (49) had a good chance to shoot from seven meters, but Göttlicher was able to block at the last moment. Aue suddenly put on more pressure. Pepic (61) then took a shot from the left half of the penalty area, but Sandhausen goalkeeper Nikolai Rehnen made the same save as he did from Marvin Stefaniak's free-kick in the 69th minute. At the other end, Männel shone with a foot save against Markus Pink in the 75th minute and then with a volley against Sebastian Stolze in the 85th minute
Copyright 2024, dpa (www.dpa.de). All rights reserved
