After the final played in detention for progress in the Conference League, 1. FC Köln left the Czech Republic as quickly as possible on Friday. The Bundesliga soccer club has to play again on Sunday after the 1-0 (0-0) at 1. FC Slovacko in the league against TSG Hoffenheim (7.30 p.m. / DAZN). “A lot of people tried to get the game moved. But it won’t,” said FC coach Steffen Baumgart, visibly pissed off shortly before leaving on Friday. “At some point some clever people decided that it was enough if there were 48 hours between two games.”
In this specific case, however, it is now more than 54 hours. The news that the game against Hoffenheim will take place on Sunday as planned came as a surprise. According to their own statements, the people of Cologne were in close contact with the German Football League and Hoffenheim, who would have been willing to transfer.
The Cologne team is now on the gums, as Linton Maina was also injured on Friday. “We’ll see who the freshest guys are on Sunday,” said Baumgart. “Soon I’ll have to ask the A youth team to get one or two more players. Because it’s slowly getting tight in terms of staff.”
Already on Thursday evening, after the game at Slovacko had been stopped after seven minutes because of dense fog, Baumgart sent the battered Jonas Hector and Mark Uth back to Germany.
They saw the important victory from afar on Friday afternoon, which substitute Ondrej Duda (82nd minute) made perfect with a penalty kick. Florian Kainz had previously awarded the point (52nd). “Thank God Dudi threw him in. Of course I was happy about that,” said Kainz. Next Thursday, FC will play against OGC Nice in the Conference League for progress. “The win was very important. Now we have to see that we knock everyone out in our stadium. I’m very optimistic,” Kainz continued. Slovacko, on the other hand, failed early. After five matchdays, Cologne are in third place with seven points behind Nice and Partizan Belgrade (both 8). The first in the group goes straight to the round of 16. The second plays in an upstream knockout round against one of the eight Europa League relegated teams.
The game, which was canceled on Thursday due to heavy fog, started again on Friday afternoon under normal conditions with a throw-in from Cologne in the seventh minute. More than 1000 FC supporters were there again on Friday. “Yesterday we were amazed at how many FC fans found their way here, even though we didn’t sell any tickets. The fact that they are here again today is anything but a matter of course,” said Cologne sports director Christian Keller on RTL.
Because of the riots at Cologne’s first away game of this Conference League season in Nice on September 8, the Cologne team was not allowed to sell any tickets themselves. However, apparently some supporters had already secured tickets for the game in the Czech Republic before the game in Nice or had gotten tickets in other ways.
They saw a Cologne team that only had better chances to score after the half-time whistle at an unusual time. Before the change of sides, the better team from the Rhineland had hardly created any chances. Kainz then carelessly missed the great opportunity to take the lead five minutes after the change. The Austrian shot a weak penalty kick into the arms of Czech keeper Filip Nguyen.
Substitute Duda (77′) initially missed another good opportunity before clinching victory five minutes later.
