1. FC Köln won their first home game in the Europa Conference League against 1. FC Slovacko after an offensive firework display.
Thanks to its standards, 1. FC Köln celebrated a successful home start in the Europa Conference League and won 4: 2 (2: 0) against the Czech cup winners 1. FC Slovacko. Sargis Adamyan (11th), Florian Dietz (42nd) and Dejan Ljubicic (64th/74th) scored for the Rhinelanders. Jan Kalabiska (48th) and Milan Petrzela (51st) equalized for Slovacko in the meantime.
Two FC standards lead to success
However, the game started with luck for FC: First, Slovackos Merchas Doski fired a free shot to the left of the goal. FC had their first scene after ten minutes and celebrated directly: Luca Kilian extended a corner to the far post, where Adamyan only had to put his foot.
However, Slovacko remained dangerous: a long-range shot by Marek Havlik went very softly past the Cologne goal (26′). Schwäbe thwarted a Czech goal twice (35th/44th). At the other end, Dietz initially missed the second goal before heading in from a Cologne corner (42′). Dejan Ljubicic almost scored the third goal with the break whistle.
Slovacko caught Cologne cold
The second half was really tough Kalabiska used the first chance to connect. Cologne now looked completely confused: Petrzela equalized with a volley. Again only 180 seconds later, Cologne goalkeeper Schwäbe made an outstanding save.
Coach Steffen Baumgart reacted and brought in Jonas Hector, Ellyes Skhiri and Timo Hübers, three of the regular players who were initially left out. After a foul on Dejan Ljubicic, there was a penalty, which the fouled man converted confidently. The game hardly knew a break in this phase: Ljubicic refined a picture-perfect counterattack to score the fourth FC goal. Slovacko never recovered from that.
FC now in Bochum
In the parallel game of the group, Nice and Belgrade drew 1-1. This puts Cologne at the top of the group after two games. FC continues on Sunday (September 18th, 2022) at 5.30 p.m. with the Bundesliga game at VfL Bochum. In the Conference League, Cologne are expecting Partizan Belgrade in their home arena at the beginning of October.