A deflected free kick in the Rhine duel in the Bundesliga started a completely wrong world: The clearly superior 1. FC Köln ended up empty-handed against an overjoyed Bayer Leverkusen.
With the 2: 1 (0: 1) Bayer climbs to 13th place in the Bundesliga and is now suddenly within striking distance of the neighbors from Cologne after the blatant false start to the season. How this long, totally one-sided game on Wednesday (November 9th, 2022) could tip over in favor of the guests was quite adventurous.
Union momentum blown away
From the beginning there was nothing to see from the Leverkusen momentum from the brilliant second half, most recently in the 5-0 win against Union Berlin – on the contrary. Bayer acted sluggishly, sluggishly, awkwardly, switched at a snail’s pace and was also really bad at football. However, that was clearly also a merit of the tactically brilliant Cologne team.
The flanks, which are often so dangerous at Bayer, were completely blocked: Eric Martel and Florian Kainz kept helping Jonas Hector on the left defensive side Jeremy Frimpong and Moussa Diaby out. On the other side came Mitchel Bakker and Callum Hudson-Odoi also not in the show because Benno Schmitz got support from Ellyes Skhiri and Linton Maina.
Dream goal by Schmitz
Cologne not only secured better, but also had clearer chances to score. Lukas Hrádecký made a strong save against Sargis Adamyan in the 10th minute, but the Finnish keeper was powerless after half an hour.
You couldn’t even blame them for the fact that the Leverkusen defense didn’t have the goalscorer on their list: Benno Schmitz had never scored in 91 Bundesliga games for RB Leipzig and FC, so he made the premiere all the better: on the edge of the penalty area he stopped the ball with his chest and volleyed it into the left corner.
Hector unlucky, Amiri lucky
There was no reaction from the Werkself, even after the world and European champions spoke at the break Xabi Alonso came first: nothing. Only FC Cologne. The home side really tightened Bayer, put enormous pressure and had a huge chance to make it 2-0 through Hector: Hrádecký, however, deflected his outstanding curl from 20 meters to the crossbar just as brilliantly.
Only the goalkeeper kept Leverkusen in the game during this phase, and Hrádecký also made strong saves against Adamyan (51′) and Maina (54′). The fact that the old district league saying (“if you don’t do those things in front…”) took effect that evening was not down to Bayer, but just luck: A poorly placed free kick by Nadiem Amiri from 18 meters out found its way that way to make it 1:1 because Kingsley Schindler’s shoulder changed the trajectory in such a way that Marvin Schwäbe ran into nothing in the FC case.
Class counter via Frimpong
Only then did Cologne begin to brood a little, and Leverkusen played like Leverkusen from the previous season: winning the ball in their own penalty area, counterattacking with lightning Hudson-Odoi and Frimpong, who played brilliantly in the middle – Diaby only had to push in to make it 2:1.
Even after this setback, Cologne continued to show great morale, but simply couldn’t get past Hrádecký. Steffen Tigges missed the greatest opportunity to equalize in the 82nd minute: the goalkeeper somehow managed to get his fingertips on his powerful header from eight meters and defended it against the crossbar.
Cologne has to go to the capital
On the 15th matchday, 1. FC Köln is required to play away at Hertha (Saturday, November 12th, 2022 at 3:30 p.m.). At the same time, Bayer Leverkusen hosts VfB Stuttgart.