The 1. FC Köln missed the chance of the promotion match ball with a 0: 1 (0: 0) defeat at Hannover 96. For the time being, this will not be the case with the Bundesliga return in front of a home crowd.
The competitors had served the 1st FC Köln on the silver platter. Not a single team with still serious promotion opportunities was able to score three times on Friday and Saturday. Instead, all teams separated with a draw – and thus provided the FC in Hanover an ideal steep template.
With a victory, the Cologne team could have pulled from seven or eight points – so it would have been possible to rise against Jahn Regensburg regardless of the results of the competition on the coming matchday. However, FC could not use its great chance in front of 15,000 fans and a guest block completely in white in the Heinz-von-Heiden-Arena.
The league leader acted too tremendous, sports director Christian Keller complained that too many players “didn’t have their best days”. In the first round, Hanover could have taken the lead through his numerous opportunities. At FC, Florian Kainz missed the 1-0 with the only goal.
Shortly after the change of sides, there was probably the game-decisive scene when Learst Pacarada was put off the pitch with yellow-red after his second foul. Hanover used his majority and took the lead from a shot from 17 meters. It was only in the final phase that FC pushed again for the equalization, but Hanover was enough on this day.
However, a Cologne promotion on the coming matchday is not completely excluded. However, the competitors have to play again: Magdeburg would have to lose against Münster and Elversberg (in Nuremberg), Paderborn (on Schalke), Düsseldorf (in Braunschweig) and Kaiserslautern (in Karlsruhe) should get a maximum of one point – provided FC wins its home game against Regensburg. However, since Elversberg and Kaiserslautern only play on Sunday, FC could get a maximum of a promotion on the sofa on the 32nd matchday.
Timo Hübers: “It is super bitter because the game is decided by a moment. In terms of commitment and the will, we cannot let anything accuse ourselves. In terms of cleverness-for example, if we take out a shot from 40 meters-we had room for improvement. If you look at it in black or white, it is a game day less and still a decent point pad. The Hanoverians have done it much more courageously. It was always well resolved, so we had a few high ball winnings.
Marvin Schwäbe: “Of course we had it in mind, but we did not take this big step because we had to play our game first. We didn’t know what was going to be 100 percent today. We did not implement it well, were imprecise in the switching game. That didn’t feel good. It was difficult with the early yellow-red card in the second round, it was still a bit of a good way. Nevertheless, it is okay.
Christian Keller: “It had several reasons today. The main reason was that we had a few boys on the pitch individually who didn’t have their best days. Then the first contact, the passing or duel behavior in many situations was not the case that you manage to develop and impress the opponent. The support of the fans was brilliant and phenomenal. Therefore it would have been nice to show a better performance and the opponent was well organized. Aggressive.