Bundesliga
After 7: 1 gala: Cologne dreams of sensation at Bayern
The Cologne players let the fans celebrate after the 7-1 win against Bremen. photo
© Rolf Vennenbernd/dpa
1. FC Köln celebrated their highest Bundesliga victory in 40 years at a good time. Because with great self-confidence we are now going to the series champions FC Bayern Munich.
After the biggest Bundesliga goal gala in Cologne in almost 40 years, the dream of a sensation against Bayern is growing at FC. After the 7-1 win against Werder Bremen, the joy-drenched fans in the trembling arena sang the classic with the lederhosen.
And coach Steffen Baumgart said in a firm voice: “We’ll try to win against Bayern ourselves.” This was “not an announcement”, he added before the game on Tuesday (8.30 p.m. / Sat.1 and Sky) at the record champions: “I didn’t say that we would win, I said we want to win.”
But the goal frenzy against the stray Bremen team not only makes many fans in Cologne believe that it is actually not feasible. “In eight out of ten cases we don’t get anything,” said defender Timo Hübers: “But we can go to Munich with a lot of confidence.”
Tigges scores at almost 50 yards
After all, the highest Cologne Bundesliga victory since October 1983 was garnished with spectacular attacking football and wonderful goals. Ellyes hit Skhiri with a side kick and Steffen Tigges from 46.7 meters. When asked if he had ever scored a goal like this, Baumgart replied with a laugh: “I have. But it was a coincidence for me. It was on purpose for him.”
Like almost everything that the Cologne team delivered on Saturday. The ecstasy in the stadium was almost uncanny for veteran Florian Kainz (30). “Maybe it’s good that it’s going on straight away,” said the Austrian: “Otherwise there might have been too much euphoria from the outside all week. But we have a coach who keeps us on the ground.”
As a matter of fact. “Everyone knows that such a result only corresponds to reality to a limited extent,” said Baumgart, recalling the 2: 5 in Mönchengladbach or the 0: 5 in Mainz: “That’s a nice result. But we’ve already been open twice this year got his ass.” Now it’s against an opponent “who has shot down quite a few opponents in exactly the same way. It just happens more often.” That’s why you know at FC “what’s coming. We are aware that you can get under the wheels very quickly at Bayern.”
Baumgart’s negative Bayern balance sheet
Baumgart knows what he is talking about. In the last nine duels as a professional or coach with Bayern, he suffered nine defeats and conceded 32 goals. Nevertheless, they want to try to “do our thing, be brave and go at the same pace”.
And that was so impressive on Saturday that Lothar Matthäus also has confidence in FC in Munich. “If Cologne plays like it does today, they also have a chance in Munich,” analyzed the long-time Bayern player as a co-commentator and Sky expert: “They have nothing to lose in Munich, and if they appear confident there, that is too something in there.”
The coach showed the self-confidence of the Cologne team, who stumbled into the bottom of the table before the winter break due to injury worries, when he publicly betrayed the entire starting eleven before the game. “You can see that we only look at ourselves,” said Kainz. And Bremen’s Leonardo Bittencourt, himself under contract with FC from 2015 to 2018, found it unbelievable. “They are still so friendly and send their line-up two days beforehand,” he said: “And then we were really taken.”
