When referee Daniel Siebert opened the game between 1. FC Köln and Borussia Dortmund on Sunday evening, some of the 50,000 spectators might have had doubts about their perception. Had the morning pint given you a few Kölsch too many? But even when viewed soberly, the picture did not change: Apparently there were actually two Erling Haalands on the pitch.
The double Haaland would be an insidious trick by Marco Rose in a long-distance duel with FC Bayern, but that’s exactly what it looked like after eight minutes when BVB took the lead early on. The tall blonde with the hair bun discovered the perfect path behind the Cologne defence, magically pulled the ball out of the air and then pushed it coolly into the corner, a really typical Haaland goal. Except that it was scored by Marius Wolf – tall, blond, topknot.
After this start, not many locals believed their team could make a big comeback. Four regular players had signed off during the week due to illness (Jonas Hector, Florian Kainz, Dejan Ljubicic) and injury (Ellyes Skhiri), after a few minutes Benno Schmitz also had to drop out on Sunday. But 1. FC Köln has Gallic resilience this season, defying the deficit and the favorites. In the end, the majority of the 50,000 spectators in the sold-out Müngersdorfer Stadion cheered a 1-1 win, which, apart from the point for the table, gave the people of Cologne a great deal of pride – and perhaps even a load of Nürnberger Rostbratwurst from Hoeneß as a fee for helping out to FC Bayern. On Sunday, Dortmund could only give the impression that they wanted to go into the title fight with all their might.
The people of Cologne convincingly played the role of home side
Borussia didn’t know what to do with the early lead and the shock moment in Cologne. They only sporadically developed their own game, mostly content with reacting to their opponent. An isolated goal chance by Haaland (the real one, 25th minute), that was the end of Dortmund’s efforts to decide the game early on. The Cologne equalizer was the result of their dominant style of play, which was based in equal parts on pressing, tackling strength and game culture: Sebastian Andersson was the shooter in cooperation with Anthony Modeste (36th).
The question was whether the people of Cologne could put in the same running effort in the second half in order to continue to play their role as hosts so convincingly. The second half was even more characterized by Cologne’s absolutely gripping commitment, but Dortmund now countered it with the same means and challenged the Cologne defense much more. Central defenders Marius Hübers and Luca Kilian worked hard. Erling Haaland, brilliantly freed by Giovanni Reyna, had the 2-1 on his feet, but maybe he would have sent his twin better – goalkeeper Marvin Schwäbe steered the ball wide with a quick foot defense (56th).
By the minute it was expected that the noticeably weakened Cologne would ease up and give in to Dortmund’s superiority, but they held their ground and in turn kept falling into the Dortmund half, where they regularly put goalkeeper Gregor Kobel in the alarm mood. Dortmund remained superior, but there was no oppressive power play until injury time. When Siebert ended the gripping game, Dortmund’s ambitious playmaker Jude Bellingham sadly lowered his eyes to the ground. Missed chance to impress Bayern.