6th matchday
Guirassy series breaks at former club – VfB wins thanks to Undav
Deniz Undav (l) scored Stuttgart’s first goal in Cologne. photo
© Marius Becker/dpa
Stuttgart striker Serhou Guirassy scored ten goals in the first five games. On matchday 6 at his former club 1. FC Köln he came away empty-handed. This time someone else scored twice.
Of all things, in the game at the former club 1. FC Köln has broken Serhou Guirassy’s impressive goal series, but his club VfB Stuttgart remains on the road to success.
Although the striker, who equaled Robert Lewandowski’s record with ten goals in the first five Bundesliga games, remained goalless for the first time on matchday 6, the Swabians celebrated by winning 2-0 (0-0) at 1. FC Köln fifth victory.
Undav becomes the match winner
This time, substitute Deniz Undav scored both goals (68th/88th). These were the first goals in a VfB jersey for the offensive player, who was on loan from Brighton before the season and was injured at the start of the season. FC, on the other hand, goes into the derbies in Leverkusen and against Mönchengladbach, which are extremely important not only for the atmosphere, with a single point. If these are also lost, there is a risk of an extremely turbulent international break.
Stuttgart coach Sebastian Hoeneß also won his fifth game against favorite opponent Cologne. And with the victory, VfB made Cologne the sole record holder in this Bundesliga category with 220 home defeats. FC and VfB had previously shared this negative record.
For the Cologne team, who played on the self-proclaimed “Diversity Match Day” with a rainbow-colored sponsor inscription on their jerseys, right-back Benno Schmitz was out for a short time due to muscular problems. Coach Steffen Baumgart started with Davie Selke and Steffen Tigges for the first time this season, which was certainly to be understood as a signal. The Cologne team started extremely offensively, almost a bit wildly, and Selke narrowly missed the ball in a promising position once with his head and once with his foot in the first four minutes.
And then suddenly it was almost 0-1 and it would have been Guirassy again, who played a total of 45 competitive games for FC between 2016 and 2018. After a corner from Chris Führich, also formerly from Cologne, he headed the ball with the back of his head against the crossbar in front of Marvin Schwäbe, who was not doing well out of the goal (7th).
FC fire fizzles out quickly
At FC the big fire was now out again. VfB brought calm to the game, which for a long time offered few highlights until there were chances for Hiroki Ito (23′) and Atakan Karazor (24′) on the Stuttgart side and for Selke (24′). Cologne’s Dejan Ljubicic had the biggest one before the break, but Alexander Nübel steered the ball over the crossbar on his 27th birthday (31′). Guirassy also had another opportunity, at least almost, when a cross from Jamie Leweling slipped over his head (42′).
Both coaches switched offensively after about an hour, wanting to win rather than defend the point. Hoeneß was rewarded when Führich passed from the baseline for Undav and he deliberately pushed in. Kölner now pushed, passionately but impetuously. VfB countered, Silas hit the post and Undav converted the rebound.
Information about the game on bundesliga.de