Hate chants against East Germany and bottle throwing at Cologne against Leipzig

Coach Marco Rose from Bundesliga football club RB Leipzig responded to hate chants against East Germany in the 5-1 win at 1. FC Cologne with a fiery appeal. “The people who don’t know it so well over there should come,” said Rose, who was born in Leipzig during the GDR era.

“There are a lot of cool people there. Just like here. There are a few idiots. Just like here. So in the end everything is actually very, very similar. That’s why we tore down the wall at some point, even in our heads.” Ultimately, he wanted to “not read too much into it” and, above all, “to connect and not divide. That’s why it’s important that we try to classify this.”

It was just 5:1 in an emotional game, “and a lot of people out there have the right attitude and attitude. We should pull ourselves up on those, and maybe the others should correct them a little too.”

Cologne’s managing director Christian Keller found clear words against the chants. “We also had an anti-discrimination game day today. “You have to ask yourself all the more what’s going on in one or the other’s head,” he said. “Such chants don’t work at all. It’s just a minority. But it’s a shame that this minority exists.”

“The place was unfortunate”

Rose defended his player Xavi, whose celebration after the 0-1 defeat had provoked the Cologne fans. “He always runs to the corner flag after scoring goals. The place was unfortunate. But he had no bad intentions at all and didn’t want to provoke anyone,” assured the RB coach.

“Why a glass bottle flies onto the pitch is the more appropriate question,” he added, referring to a scene during an RB corner in the 42nd minute. “If he hits someone, whether someone in a white or blue jersey, then it hurts.” Meanwhile, Keller announced that he wanted to identify the bottle thrower: “I hope we find some video.”

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The chants come from “the clear minority of people in the stadium,” Keller added – and yet this minority is loud and attracts attention. It almost faded into the background that with this crushing defeat, FC suffered another setback in the fight to stay in the league and RB had gained ground in the race for the Champions League.

RB coach Rose praised his team for a “very good away performance” that would have brought a “deserved victory”. Leipzig’s national player David Raum said he had not noticed any of the insults and then followed up with a barb. RB would have given the appropriate answer to the insults on the pitch. Lois Openda (63rd, 67th minute), Amadou Haidara (70th) and joker Yussuf Poulsen (82nd) ​​made RB celebrate, but the goal by Sargis Adamyan (18th) was bearable.