FC Köln Beat Wolfsburg: Goalkeeper Saves the Day

1. FC Köln managed an important win against VfL Wolfsburg. Under the floodlights, coach Lukas Kwasniok’s team narrowly won 1-0 (1-0) against Lower Saxony and improved their points tally to 23 points in the middle of the Bundesliga table. Wolfsburg under Daniel Bauer remains at 19 points. In front of 50,000 spectators in the sold-out Cologne stadium, Linton Maina (29th minute) scored the only goal at the start of the 20th matchday.

“In the end, there is a lot of relief. We played a very good first half, but we have to blame ourselves for not scoring a second goal. To be honest, we have to thank our goalkeeper Marvin Schwäbe at the end. Fantastic performance. You could already tell that the team had something to lose in the last few minutes,” said Cologne’s sports director Thomas Kessler on Sky. “He has carried us, held us, for years,” praised Maina.

Amoura is missing from Wolfsburg

Wolfsburg’s top goalscorer Mohammed Amoura was surprisingly missing from the squad – for disciplinary reasons, as the club announced before kick-off. “The team, the We, is above everything and Mohammed didn’t stick to it 100 percent during the week,” said Bauer on Sky and spoke of internal things. Captain Maximilian Arnold returned after his yellow card suspension. At FC, shooting star Said El Mala was initially back on the bench.

While the visiting fans set off fireworks in the stands shortly before kick-off, Wolfsburg got off to a powerful start on the pitch and initially had a lot of possession. After a short phase of reluctance, Cologne also found their way into the game better. VfL goalkeeper Kamil Grabara prevented the score from falling behind in the 19th minute with a strong reflex when Ragnar Ache came free to head the ball from close range.

Ten minutes later, Maina rewarded the now superior home team with the deserved opening goal, which caused red flares to glow in the south stand. After a pass from Tom Krauß, the 26-year-old fired a slightly deflected low shot from around 20 meters into the right corner. Even after that, the FC stayed on the trigger and pushed for the 2-0, but lacked the necessary precision in several well-played situations.

First Cologne break tour in almost three months

On the other side, Patrick Wimmer, after a one-two with Christian Eriksen, shot over the goal as a rare sign of life from the otherwise largely harmless guests (37th). In particular, the defense, which was very vulnerable with more than 40 goals conceded so far this season, had a lot to do, while there was very little going forward. This meant that FC went into the dressing room with a lead for the first time in almost three months.

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VfL reacted with a double substitution – Kento Shiogai and Adam Daghim came on for Lovro Majer and Vinicius Souza – and started more actively offensively. A cross from Wimmer was spectacularly cleared in the air by FC keeper Schwäbe (49′).

Maina also put a counter-attack opportunity from Cologne just wide of the goal (69′). In this phase, however, VfL came closer and closer to equalizing. Sebastian Sebulonsen blocked a shot from Adam Daghim at the last moment (73′).

Kwasniok reacted to the change in the game and brought new speed with El Mala and Jan Thiemann 15 minutes before the end. Wolfsburg pressed and pushed and Cologne repeatedly allowed top-class chances, but in the end they were not punished. That was mainly due to keeper Schwäbe. “The last few weeks haven’t been easy. We were able to reward ourselves with three points at home,” said Schwäbe on Sky.

FC coach Kwasniok spoke of a “fight for survival” in the second half. “Unfortunately we stopped playing football in the second half. It was very erratic at the beginning of the second half,” he said. “We didn’t have any relief at all, we weren’t so clean in our defensive actions. And then you need a good goalkeeper – we had that.”