1. FC Köln deservedly won the Rhenish derby against Borussia Mönchengladbach and left last place in the table. Florian Kainz was the match winner in the 3:1 (1:0) win, the best player was Luca Waldschmidt.
“There was already pressure on the boiler”Thomas Kessler, head of licensed football at FC, then admitted: “That’s why it was very, very important that we celebrated the derby win. It’s still only three points, but we were always sure that we would achieve our goals with this team.”
Kainz summed up: “We’re all very, very relieved. It’s clear that after a point after seven games, a lot is written and a lot is questioned. But the coach is a man of clear words, does his thing and it pays off.”
“Too little in all respects”
Gladbach’s captain Julian Weigl admitted: “That wasn’t enough from us in all respects. We played a terrible first half. Then we pulled ourselves together again, but the red card pulled the plug on us.”
Somewhat surprisingly, Manu Koné returned to the Gladbach starting eleven, being preferred to the recently strong Rocco Reitz. But Koné made a pretty unfortunate start. The Frenchman blocked a long-range shot from Waldschmidt with his spread arm, and referee Deniz Aytekin gave a free kick on the edge of the penalty area. After the Cologne cellar intervened, it quickly became clear that the crime scene was on the line of the penalty area – Florian Kainz gave Moritz Nicolas no chance with his hand penalty for the 1-0 lead (9th minute).
Cologne is clearly better in all statistics
With this goal, the Cologne team had left the bottom of the table, but they didn’t appear like they were at the bottom of the table anyway: clearly superior in the duel, much more thoughtful in their forward play and also totally dominant when it came to possession of the ball. After half an hour, the statistics were devastating for the guests: only 43 percent duels won, 41 percent possession and 1:11 shots on goal.
The only drawback from FC’s point of view: Cologne could have improved more consistently. In the 13th minute, Julian Chabot hit the crossbar with his head, five minutes later Maximilian Wöber cleared a shot from Dejan Llubicic in desperate need that Nicolas would hardly have saved. In the 40th minute, aluminum saved the visitors for the second time: Nicolas directed a cracker from Waldschmidt onto the inside post with his fingertips.
Miss Pass Festival the Gladbach offensive
Gladbach’s offensive game, on the other hand, was a festival of bad passes: Franck Honorat, Tomas Cvancara and Alassane Plea lost one ball after the other up front, and Florian Neuhaus also had no structure in his attacking efforts.
VfL coach Gerardo Seoane reacted during the break and made two changes. With Reitz and Joe Scally replacing Luca Netz and Florian Neuhaus, the activity increased, but there were still no chances to score.
Elvedi scores from Honorat’s corner
Then, out of absolutely nowhere, the equalizer came, significantly from a set piece. Honorat hit a sharp corner in the 62nd minute, Eric Martel was asleep at FC and Davie Selke didn’t get into the duel either – Nico Elvedi headed into the goal from six meters unstoppable for Marvin Schwäbe to make it 1-1 (62nd).
The fact that the momentum didn’t shift to Gladbach’s side was due to two rude fouls. In the 72nd minute, Koné hit the ball above the ankle with his studs. Aytekin initially gave a yellow, but, as with the hand penalty, was called to the screen by the VAR: yellow was deleted, Koné got red.
Kainz scores on the second attempt
Seconds later, Aytekin was the focus again. Nicolas misjudged a cross from Faride Alidou, punched past the ball and hit Waldschmidt hard in the head: penalty for Cologne. Kainz failed with a rather pitiful lob attempt right in the middle of the goal at the Gladbach keeper, but after the linesman intervened, Aytekin had it repeated: Nicolas had moved a few centimeters away from the goal line – on the second attempt, Kainz then scored for a 2-1 lead ( 76.).
When they were outnumbered, Borussia couldn’t make much progress after that; FC worked on extending their lead. Waldschmidt was denied by Nicolas from a distance in the 85th minute, and five minutes later he was rewarded for his outstanding performance from 18 meters with the 3-1 – it was his eighth shot on goal in total.
With their first win of the season, Cologne jumped to 16th place and are now only two points behind the completely disappointing Gladbachers.
Cologne in Leipzig, Gladbach welcomes promoted team Heidenheim
On matchday 9, the Foals will face Heidenheim at home (Saturday, October 28th, 2023 at 3:30 p.m.). The Cologne team are challenged in the top game in Leipzig (6.30 p.m.).