National players Umut ‘Umut’ Gültekin and Mustafa ‘xMusti19’ Cankal have been promoted back to Division 1 of the FIFAe Nations Series Play-Ins.
The DFB duo had been under considerable pressure after a poor second week of play. Umut ‘Umut’ Gültekin and Mustafa ‘xMusti19’ Cankal needed to make a direct return to Division 1 of the second European Conference to stay in the play-ins.
Naturally, after relegation, the hurdles also fell a little lower – Estonia and Slovakia instead of Portugal and Sweden. And the big weekly favourites Germany made short work of the individually weaker competition: the eNational team won all twelve games of the six matches.
‘Umut’ and ‘xMusti19’ flex their muscles
‘Umut’ and ‘xMusti19’ finished the third Play-Ins week in first place, thanks to a full 36 points, the lead over the worst “chaser” Estonia was ultimately a whopping eleven points. Alongside the DFB and the Estonians, the third-placed Icelanders also moved up into the first division before the final week.
Northern Ireland were the first opponents to have to overcome Gültekin and Cankal’s desire for promotion, with the German duo prevailing 8:2 and 3:0. Afterwards, Iceland (3:0 and 3:0), Estonia (3:1 and 6:1) and Slovakia (3:0 and 3:0) also stood no chance on Thursday – the latter, however, without a fight.
Tough showdown in week four
The return to the upper house of the second conference was already virtually certain before Friday, ‘Umut’ and ‘xMusti19’ took full points against Bulgaria (3:0 and 3:0) as well as Russia (3:0 and 3:0) without competing. Thus, the DFB duo only had to actually play three out of six duels.
While Germany, Estonia and Iceland kept alive their dream of direct entry into the FIFAe Nations Series play-offs, the play-ins are over for Division 1 relegated Romania, Belgium and Finland. Portugal, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Scotland remain in the race thanks to their class preservation.
In the fourth week of play, the DFB team must finish first in Division 1 to secure their ticket to the play-offs. Should this extremely difficult undertaking fail, there is still the back door via the Main Stage of the Online Qualifiers – the path to the FIFAe Nations Cup 2022 is still a long one.
