Conference League: Cologne is eliminated

1. FC Köln are eliminated from the Europa Conference League after a draw against OGC Nice in the last group game.

The Domstadters caught up a 0:2 break deficit on Thursday evening, but did not manage to score the redeeming winning goal at 2:2 (0:2). Only with a win could the Cologne team have reached first or second place in the group and thus made it into the next round.

After the riots in the first leg, the city remained quiet in the run-up to the game, according to the police. Even during the game, it remained largely peaceful in the half-filled guest block.

Compared to the 1-1 draw against Hoffenheim at the weekend, coach Steffen Baumgart made three changes to his starting XI: Kingsley Schindler, Ellyes Skhiri and Sargis Adamyan replaced Eric Martel, Benno Schmitz and Linton Maina.

Cologne makes the game, Nice scores

FC started under a lot of pressure, attacked early and scored the first dangerous shot through Steffen Tigges in the 5th minute. Two minutes later, Sargis Adamyan tested OGC keeper Kasper Schmeichel with two shots. In a wild initial phase, the French also had good scenes. Denis Huseinbasic was able to block a shot from Bilal Brahimi at the last moment (9′). Nice also tried pressing in the period that followed and repeatedly forced the Cologne defense to lose possession. A shot from Nicolas Pepé (21′) and a header from former Bundesliga player Dante (24′) were the first good goals for the guests.

It became much more dangerous on the other side when Schmeichel was only able to keep a Tigges header out of the goal with a brilliant save (27th). In the 33rd minute, Kingsley Schindler tried it from a distance, but missed the goal. At the end of the first half, the home side had the game under control and pushed for the opening goal.

In the middle of the Cologne urge, however, Nice scored 1-0. Gaetan Laborde completed a counterattack to the lucky lead (41st) of the guests. The attacker had just been on the ball with his hand, but referee César Soto Grado, who has no video evidence available in the Conference League, ruled on goal. And things got worse for FC: After Florian Kainz lost the ball and two quick passes from the French, the Cologne defense was undermined and Brahimi scored just two minutes after the first goal to make it 2-0 at half-time (43′).

Huseinbasic and Duda equalize

FC now needed three goals to make it through to the next round and came out of the dressing room adjusted accordingly. After a big chance from Adamyan (46′), which Schmeichel thwarted, Huseinbasic did better and scored from a tight angle to make it 1-2 (48′). Immediately after bringing on Schmitz and Maina for Kainz and Schindler, Cologne equalized. Ondrej Duda completed a well-played attack on Huseinbasic’s assist to make it 2-2 (60′).

Nice stabilized in the period that followed and only allowed a little. At the same time, the French, for whom the draw was enough to progress, deliberately took their time with dead balls. So the game rippled with many duels and few scenes in the penalty area until the final phase. In order to force the decisive goal, Baumgart brought on the recovered Jan Thielmann for the last five minutes.

At first, however, only the guests, who benefited from ever-increasing gaps in the Cologne defence, became a goal threat. Marvin Schwäbe was able to parry Pepé’s shot (87′). Despite five minutes of stoppage time, the Bundesliga club was no longer dangerous in front of the French goal.

Sunday in Fribourg

Cologne will continue in the Bundesliga on Sunday (November 6th, 2022/5:30 p.m.) with an away game at SC Freiburg.

Source: wdr.de