1. FC Köln is extremely happy with the 1-1 draw at VfB Stuttgart despite Faride Alidou’s huge chance to score the winning goal. The voices for the game.
If the third-to-last team takes a draw in the third, it is “worthy of all honor.” This is also how Timo Schultz classified 1. FC Köln’s 1-1 draw at VfB Stuttgart. However, there would have been three points for the coach and his billy goats: In the 85th minute, Faride Alidou ran alone towards VfB goalkeeper Fabian Bredlow, went around him – but only hit the side netting.
“He slams a chance like that into the net in training,” explained teammate Jan Thielmann after the final whistle. Defense chief Jeff Chabot was “only missing the goal” in the action; Alidou actually did a lot of things right. “Of course, if you run towards the goalkeeper alone, that’s a 100 percent chance of scoring every time. In our situation it was bitter, that would have been the lucky punch,” said Cologne’s licensing department head Thomas Kessler, but immediately added: ” Nevertheless, the point is not only important in the table, but also for morale because it shows that we can score points anywhere. We definitely shouldn’t be upset today.”
Eric Martel, who equalized 1-1 after 62 minutes after Stuttgart had taken the lead through Enzo Millot (53′), left “with the feeling that it might have even been three points”. But the six-man also knew that this “wouldn’t have been fair given the way the game was going.” So FC’s joy about the point outweighed the odds.
This is what the coaches say about the game
Timo Schultz: “It’s definitely a point for us. We knew that a very strong opponent awaited us, and Stuttgart showed that for the full 95 minutes. We put a lot of work into our defense. I think The boys really did an excellent job when they were on the pitch. Especially in the second half, we were able to create a lot more danger from our ball conquests and consequently scored the equaliser. With a bit of luck, we could even take the pitch Winner left, with two huge chances behind.”
Sebastian Hoeness: “We are of course disappointed with the result, we expected more. We got into the game okay without much happening. From the eighth or ninth minute we developed a real pressure phase until the 25th minute with three or four promising ones Situations in the Cologne box. 0-0 shouldn’t have been the result at half-time, we lacked a bit of greed. The 1-0 score in the second half should actually have freed us and given us inspiration – it didn’t. I did We lacked a bit of clarity and sharpness to get the game completely on our side. The corner to make it 1-1 was caused by an unnecessary loss of the ball, then we cleared twice, but the ball fell twice at Cologne’s feet. After the equalizer Cologne were back in full swing and we were no longer able to develop any real pressure. Cologne played a really good game here, especially in defense. But the situations they had were, in our view, very unnecessary because we had the balls lost too easily.”
The other voices about the game
Thomas Kessler: “VfB had a very dominant phase in the first half and we resisted very well. After the break, Stuttgart combined very well, but we knew that we would get our chances. That’s how it happened. It’s a shame that we didn’t move better and act happier on one or two counterattacks. There could have been more, but we deserved to take a point. After the game against Bremen we were annoyed and we wanted to see a reaction today – that The team has shown. Our goal is to at least have a chance of staying in the league with relegation. But we are working on having the necessary points on matchday 34 in order to be able to play in the Bundesliga again next season. It’s possible nothing else, and every point is good for us.”