Steffen Baumgart looked around grimly after the referee whistled for the break. The facial expression of the Cologne coach signaled a score of 0:2 or worse, the scoreboard boldly put the interim result at 5:1 for FC, and if Steffen Tigges hadn’t just been unlucky with a good shot at the post, then the half dozen would still be there been full of change. Werder Bremen had been played against the wall by Cologne, but Baumgart’s inner seismograph had detected a multi-percent loss of intensity in his team after they scored the 5-0 in the 36th minute.
Niclas Füllkrug’s goal to make it 1:5 seemed to confirm the critical perception. Those familiar with Baumgart’s dressing room speeches therefore agreed: The coach would not pat his players on the back for their predominantly furious performance – he would call them to order in an authoritarian manner and loudly order them to attack.
There are still no documents about what happened during the tea break, but the 50,000 spectators in Müngersdorf could tell immediately that Steffen Baumgart’s message had reached the addressees. She continued her concerted work again at the ordered stormy level, Werder tried in vain to limit the damage.
“It’s hard to put our performance into words,” says Werder coach Ole Werner – “all in all, disastrous”.
They didn’t want to succeed in a serious counterattack, in the end they even got away mercifully with a 1:7. However, Bremen’s coach Ole Werner could see nothing comforting in it: “It’s difficult to put into words our performance – the bottom line is disastrous. It’s not possible to fall apart like that,” he said. His tone: icy.
Cynical snapshot: Bremen goalkeeper Jiri Pavlenka could only be happy that Cologne did not win in double digits.
(Photo: Uwe Kraft/Imago)
The appearance of the two coaches during the game did not express what was happening on the pitch. While Werner watched motionless, Baumgart didn’t give up even after Ellyes Skhiri scored the 6:1 in the 54th minute and dispelled the small remaining doubts. The coach took part in the game, which was no longer hot, with such enthusiasm that when it was below zero he took off his jacket and conducted in a T-shirt. There was no euphoria later either: “You don’t often get a game like that,” said Baumgart. Not a trace of hymns of praise and beams of joy.
Werder conceded the first five goals in just 27 minutes.
Right from the start, the Cologne team took the direction that the coach prefers. She went on the offensive and with her excellently orchestrated team play she got there straight away. After nine minutes, the carnival classic with the little drum, with which the people of Cologne usually celebrate their goals, came out of the speakers for the first time. Winger Linton Maina had completed a counterattack that seemed to have petered out at least three times. But every time the Bremen team thought they had intercepted the attack, it turned sharp again. Skhiri and Steffen Tigges submitted, Maina scored.
And Werder has to watch again: Ellyes Skhiri (left) skillfully spoons the ball into the Werder goal to make it 4-0.
(Photo: Imago/Jan Huebner)
Werder found no support and no attitude to the game. At 0:2, several defensive players made a mistake at once, until Tigges suddenly got a shot on goal in the penalty area. The second goal of the centre-forward, who came from Borussia Dortmund in the summer, delighted fans of the spectacle. Tigges hit the goal with a lob from 46 meters after Werder goalkeeper Pavlenka was unable to get home in time after a high-spirited trip to the field.
“We were taken hops today,” said Bremen’s playmaker Bittencourt, who was unable to play.
3:0 after 21 minutes, not many visitors had expected that, and when it was 5:0 after goals from Skhiri and Huseinbasic, the astonishment was almost greater than the jubilation. “Today we were taken hops,” said Bremen’s playmaker Bittencourt.
It’s been almost forty years since 1. FC Köln won so highly in the Bundesliga. In October 1983 there was a 7-0 win against Eintracht Frankfurt. Back then, however, stars like Littbarski, Allofs and Fischer also played for FC, this time players named Martel, Huseinbasic or Chabot won. Baumgart could be proud of his work. But one can be sure that he is far from satisfied.