1. FC Köln suffered their first defeat in the Europa Conference League in the home game against Partizan Belgrade.
Coach Steffen Baumgart’s team narrowly lost 1-0 (0-1) against the Serbian representative on Thursday evening and slipped down to third place in Group D.
Baumgart made seven changes to his starting XI for the third group game. In captain Jonas Hector, Ellyes Skhiri and Dejan Ljubicic, three top performers sat on the bench. Baumgart had already left Hector and Skhiri out in the previous game against FC Slovacko (4:2).
In addition to goalkeeper Marvin Schwäbe, only Luca Kilian, Ondrej Duda and Florian Kainz remained in the starting line-up that defeated Borussia Dortmund 3-2.
Early lead for Partizan – Dietz misses a great opportunity
Both teams met at eye level and offensively in the early stages. The guests took the lead in the 9th minute with a set piece: Svetozar Markovic extended a free-kick cross with his head into the Cologne goal.
After falling behind early on, FC immediately increased the pressure on the goal of the Serbs, who were now deep, but without really being able to finish dangerously. Sargis Adamyan fired Cologne’s first real shot on goal in the 20th minute, but missed the target by a wide margin.
Few good options
Shortly thereafter things became really dangerous for the first time in front of the Partizan goal: a cross from Kingsley Schindler headed Adamyan onto the crossbar (24′). Shortly thereafter, Belgrade’s goalkeeper Aleksandar Popovic was tested for the first time after a shot by Kainz, but he saved it without any problems (29′). Florian Dietz should have equalized for FC in the 32nd minute, but he headed into Popovic’s arms.
Partizan only rarely appeared in front of the Cologne goal, but they became quite dangerous. In the 41st minute, FC goalkeeper Schwäbe and the post saved Cologne from the 0:2 through Fousseni Diabaté. It was the last chance before the break.
Schwäbe keeps saving for Cologne
The FC came out of the cabin with a lot of pressure and immediately won several corner balls. Duda recorded the first dangerous shot in the 53rd minute, but shot just wide of the goal. The Slovak also had the next Cologne chance when he fired a powerful shot into the side netting (60′).
But Partizan also remained dangerous with the few attacks. An attempt by Ricardo Gomes was blocked (61′), the shots by Queensy Menig (63′) and Andrija Pavlovic (64′) were parried by the outstanding Swabian. Baumgart had previously made three changes and brought fresh strength with Linton Maina, Hector and Ljubicic (62nd). For the last 20 minutes Steffen Tigges and Mark Uth, who played his first game of the season, came to Cologne.
Cologne is pushing, Partizan has the big chances
The Domstädter continued to run desperately, but only rarely came up with really good shots against compact defending Serbs. A shot from Hector did not pose any major problems for Partizan keeper Popovic (78′). The goalkeeper was also able to easily hold Adamyan’s attempt (81′). It became more dangerous when Tigges took a direct shot, narrowly missing the post from five yards out (83′).
Instead, Patrick Andrade almost made the decision in favor of the guests. During a counterattack, the Partizan midfielder appeared free in front of Schwäbe and lost the duel with the FC keeper (90+1). On the other side, Ljubicic shot over the goal (90+2). Tigges had another chance to head the ball in the 7th minute of stoppage time, shortly afterwards Popovic prevented the Serbs from scoring an own goal in dire straits.
Derby vs Gladbach
For the people of Cologne, the next highlight is on the program on Sunday (3.30 p.m.). Then FC is visiting Borussia Mönchengladbach for the Rhenish derby.
