1. FC Köln wins 1-0 against SV Elversberg, but may lose Tim Lemperle again. The attacker didn’t feel like celebrating after the game.
He was the only one who didn’t want to celebrate with the fans on Saturday after the 1-0 victory over SV Elversberg. Despite repeated requests from his teammates, Tim Lemperle refused to join the Laola wave. Instead of being happy about the three points, the striker turned away early and went to the dressing room, obviously pissed off.
But what had happened? The 22-year-old came on as a substitute in the 67th minute after making his first appearance in the squad since mid-December. “Tim made it into the squad, but we didn’t want to risk anything because of the muscle injury. It’s about his resilience,” coach Gerhard Struber told Sky before kick-off. Despite the relatively late substitution, the risk was probably too great.
Because with one of the last actions of the game, Cologne’s top scorer this season (eight goals) felt another pang in his thigh. The FC is once again threatened with Lemperle’s failure, which will be examined in more detail this weekend. For the striker it would be the third muscle-related loss in six weeks. Lemperle tore a muscle fiber in mid-December and then suffered a strain in January.
The joy of Lemperle, but also everyone else involved at FC, was correspondingly dampened afterwards, despite regaining the lead in the table, at least for a few hours.
Gerhard Struber: “It was a game that demanded a lot from us. The opponent has a lot to offer and is constantly celebrating successes in their positional play. In the end it was a working victory and you need a bit of luck. We’re out at the back “We experienced another punch and had several impulses in a row to get the game on our side. The victory is important for our self-confidence. There are some things that we can take with us very positively, but there are also a lot of things we can improve on.”
SVE trainer Horst Steffen: “Congratulations to Gerhard and FC on the win. If I were to comment on a 1-0 win for us, I would say it was deserved. But that’s not what happened. We saw an open game. We had a few ball losses, but also actions, “We could have won the game with them. It’s nice to see that we were fully there.”
Dominique Heintz: “Every game in the 2nd league is hard work. We fought our way through it well. The second half was also better going forward, we created more chances to score. We had to overcome one or two things, Elversberg played well good with the ball. If you look at the whole game, I think we stuck with it and fought as leaders, of course we like to sing with the fans, it was always good today much better than last week.”
Marvin Schwäbe: “We stuck with it, believed in ourselves and didn’t let ourselves get down even after the goal was taken back. We continued to play our part and were successful in the end. We’re happy to be at the top again now. No matter what – one Victory always gives you more self-confidence and a bigger chest.”
Linton Maina: “Elversberg had one or two chances. But we didn’t underestimate them either, they have one of the strongest teams in the league. Nevertheless, we played it down cleverly in the end. In the second half we made a difference with the actions we had After the goal was not given, we thought that a lot is possible if we play the ball behind the chain. We are already looking at the table. That is our goal . I met the team in a circle after the game said that it was the first win in the first half of the season and thus the starting signal.”
Licensing area manager Thomas Kessler: “Elversberg played a really good game. With the goal disallowed, our team was given another jolt. You had the impression that we really wanted to win. Those are three very important points. But I also have a lot I didn’t like it. We have to analyze it very hard now. The boys worked for the win and showed the right mentality again in the last 20 minutes.”