Who cares about the lousy start to the season? Borussia Mönchengladbach triumphed in the Rhenish derby against 1. FC Köln – albeit a little too clearly.
Borussia Mönchengladbach has now arrived in the Bundesliga season. On matchday 10, Gladbach celebrated their second victory, a very special one. In the Rhenish football derby against 1. FC Köln on Saturday, Borussia won 3-1 (1-0) and thus left the lower ranks of the table.
Philipp Sander (45th+2), Kevin Diks (61st) and Haris Tabakovic (64th) scored the goals after Tabakovic missed a penalty (45th+2). Luca Waldschmidt’s goal (90+2, penalty kick) came too late. Mönchengladbach ended its black streak of eight winless home games across the season.
Cologne was an equal opponent and had significantly more shots on goal (17:7), but was left behind in the decisive situations.
Cologne with El Mala in the starting line-up
Mönchengladbach got into form in time for the derby. After a catastrophic start to the season with a change of coach, Borussia recently celebrated two wins in a row in the DFB Cup and Bundesliga. Interim coach Eugen Polanski relied on the same starting eleven as in the 4-0 win at St. Pauli and chose a defensive approach. The Gladbachers often left the ball to the Cologne team and were particularly careful not to catch any counterattacks.
FC didn’t take any risks either, so the first half only offered a few highlights. Only Cologne’s Marius Bülter, who came into the starting line-up for Ragnar Ache, came close to scoring with a shot at the near corner (10th). Shooting star Said El Mala was also allowed to start, pushing Linton Maina to the bench. The winger, who was nominated for the national team for the first time, mostly got stuck with his dribbling.
Tabakovic misses, Sander scores
A 0-0 would have been a fair result at half-time, but things took a turn for the worse in the final phase. Cologne’s Kristoffer Lund stumbled in his own penalty area and collided with Franck Honorat, causing the Gladbacher to fall. Referee Deniz Aytekin had a clear view of the action and allowed the game to continue, but was sent to the screen by the VAR.
According to the scene, Aytekin decided on a penalty. Only on the screen did he see that Lund had also hit Honorat in the knee, Aytekin said after the game Tabakovic stepped up and placed a shot into the left corner – but FC goalkeeper Marvin Schwäbe made a strong save. But Cologne’s celebration only lasted a short time, as the following corner gave Gladbach the lead. The FC defense cleared too short and Sander shot through the commotion into the right corner.
Hand penalty after VAR intervention
FC coach Lukas Kwasniok made a change in the second half, taking El Mala and Florian Kainz off the field and bringing on Sebastian Sebulonsen and Ache. The Cologne team came out of the locker room with momentum and Bülter’s direct pass landed on the roof of the goal (48′). But Gladbach survived the short period of pressure unscathed.
The VAR then came into focus again and alerted Aytekin to a possible handball by Lund. The FC full-back played the ball with his hand, but in the crowd, without visibility and with natural arm movement. For Aytekin, the movement of his arm towards the ball was reason enough to decide on a penalty. This time Diks took over and again Schwäbe had his fingers on it, but could no longer parry.
Özkacar enables Gladbach’s third goal
The Cologne team had themselves to blame for the next goal they conceded. After his own throw-in, Cenk Özkacar slipped the ball so that Honorat was able to counter on the right side. He played perfectly into Tabakovic’s path, who just had to push in.
FC didn’t give up yet, Jakub Kaminski hit the crossbar and Ache had a promising header. The 88th minute was fitting for the messed up evening from Cologne’s perspective: Luca Waldschmidt scored a dream goal from 25 meters. However, it didn’t count because Ache had previously been slightly offside.
Referee Aytekin then made a goal possible for Cologne: He assessed a collision by Lukas Ullrich against Ache as a foul worthy of a penalty and Waldschmidt safely converted. “It’s a tough penalty,” Aytekin said on Sky after watching the scene.
Gladbach in Heidenheim, Cologne against Frankfurt
After the international break, Gladbach will be visiting bottom team 1. FC Heidenheim on Saturday afternoon (3:30 p.m.). Cologne welcomes Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday evening (6:30 p.m.).