For a few years, the Cologne fans’ choreographies were more exciting and unpredictable than the FC players’ football. This has only changed fundamentally under the leadership of coach Steffen Baumgart since the summer of 2022. On Saturday, however, it was clear to everyone that things would be different one way or another, because for the 75th birthday of this self-proclaimed jerk club, the club and the spectators presented a gigantic choreography that encompassed all the stands. You’ve rarely seen anything like this in a stadium.
From the hosts’ point of view, it was a shame that football had to be played afterwards. Because on this day of all events, VfL Wolfsburg showed up in the Müngersdorfer Stadion and kidnapped all three points from Cologne thanks to an unchallenged 2-0 (1-0) win, in a humorless way.
You could have guessed that when guest coach Niko Kovac cheekily tugged at Steffen Baumgart’s anniversary scarf before kick-off, before Baumgart ran around in a short-sleeved shirt again in frosty conditions. Shortly thereafter, less than four minutes into the game, Wolfsburg were leading 1-0 and it was rare to experience what it must mean when the energy supply in a stadium is suddenly cut off. Like their players on the pitch, the spectators in the stands never really found their way into the game.
Perhaps they were also surprised that Baumgart had pointed out the shortage of personnel before kick-off – something that has hardly ever been seen from him. He was right about that, half a dozen regular players had to pass. The loss of Florian Kainz, whose flanks were badly missed, weighed particularly heavily. After the early goal, Cologne pressed for 15 minutes, pressed vehemently, but the felt 30 corners and 40 crosses didn’t lead to a real chance. Up front, Davie Selke and Steffen Tigges were very unlucky (the two had 17 ball contacts together in the first round). And when the Cologne side came up with a serious goal (a total of three times in 90 minutes), visiting goalkeeper Koen Casteels had no trouble.
Wolfsburg is efficient and benefits from a goalkeeper error and a penalty
It was different on the other side, much more effective – and was unintentionally assisted in the two most important scenes by Cologne’s most important pillars: goalkeeper Marvin Schwäbe and captain Jonas Hector. In any case, former Cologne player Yannick Gerhardt seemed almost embarrassed when his harmless left-footed shot slipped under the otherwise reliable FC keeper Schwäbe – perhaps Schwäbe’s first embarrassing mistake of the season. “Marvin told me he saw the ball too late. I didn’t really hit it,” said Gerhardt, so the shooter was doubly surprised by his success; Schwäbe said on Sky that he could “imagine that it looked strange”.
Who still needs Instagram, Twitter or the like to convey personal messages? Wolfsburg’s penalty-goal scorer Maximilian Arnold announces offspring in the Arnold family.
(Photo: Revierfoto/Imago)
Visiting coach Niko Kovac proudly explained that his team managed to “close the middle” and the hosts weren’t well positioned on the wings. “We were relatively present,” said Wolfsburg’s captain Maximilian Arnold, commenting on the end of the small Wolfsburg deficit with four games without a win. With his penalty – which Hector caused by a clumsy attempt to clear it – he was “double under pressure” after missing a penalty against Schalke 04 “like a blind man” two weeks ago. But this time he solved the task in a cool way and was therefore able to report with delight about the really important things in his life: After two sons, a daughter is on the way – after that, his wife has already announced to him, “downstairs will be closed”.