27th matchday
Cologne (AP) – Erling Haaland remained on the substitutes’ bench with a blank stare and crossed arms, then the frustrated scorer followed the rest of the team on the way to the fans.
At the end of what had at least been a perfect English week up until then, Borussia Dortmund only managed a 1-1 (1-1) draw at 1. FC Köln, another six points behind FC Bayern Munich and perhaps the decisive setback in the Bundesliga title fight collects. The series champion had won 4-0 against Union Berlin the day before. Seven games are still to come, including the direct duel in Munich on the fourth-to-last matchday.
“For me, a very fair draw,” said BVB coach Marco Rose after the game on the DAZN streaming service. “Unfortunately we couldn’t take the three points in the end,” said defender Manuel Akanji.
FC coach satisfied
In the eighth minute, Marius Wolf gave Dortmund a perfect start in front of 50,000 spectators. But FC got a deserved equalizer through Sebastian Andersson (36th) and in seventh place – and rightly so in view of such performances – can continue to dream of moving into the Europa or Conference League. “We wanted to see what the boys tore off,” said Cologne coach Steffen Baumgart.
At BVB, on the other hand, striker Erling Haaland was denied the 17th goal of the season when he made his comeback after 57 days, just like after his two substitutions in the 1-0 wins against Bielefeld and in Mainz.
BVB had the first chance of the game, but not Haaland, but the minutes before kick-off for Nico Schulz, who was injured during the warm-up, Raphael Guerreiro. His shot from the back after a corner was parried by FC keeper Marvin Schwäbe with two fists. A few seconds later, BVB took advantage of an opportunity: Cologne right-back Benno Schmitz was treated and immediately after the start of the game, Jude Bellingham passed Wolf through his side, who prevailed against Timo Hübers and didn’t give Schwäbe a chance. Schmitz then had to be substituted.
Haaland fails
Fifteen minutes later, Haaland had his first opportunity, again after a pass from the strong Bellingham he narrowly missed (24th). But Cologne, as almost always, played vigorously forward under coach Steffen Baumgart. After 20 minutes, Anthony Modeste flew just wide of a Mark Uth cross, but the Frenchman then had his head in the game when he equalized: He extended a cross from Jannes Horn to strike partner Andersson, who had escaped Guerreiro and shot in from four meters. Six minutes later, the Swede headed just over the cross from Horn.
Ten minutes after the break, Haaland had a huge opportunity to make it 2-1 when he appeared free in front of Schwäbe, but the Cologne keeper made a great save with his left foot. The goalscorer, who is being courted by major European clubs and whose future is still open, usually does not pass up such a chance. Haaland was substituted in the 87th minute. All in all, Dortmund’s chances arose too much from individual good actions, BVB didn’t manage to build up any real pressure for most of the game.