After two defeats in a row, 1. FC Köln want to get back on track – the billy goats are in the Bundesliga top game as a guest at surprise promoted VfL Bochum. Follow the game live here in the ticker…
After the Bayern bankruptcy (0:4) and the bitter cup penalty shoot-out against HSV, 1. FC Köln want to get back on the track to collect points. Opponent in the Bundesliga top game of the 20th matchday is VfL Bochum. The climber from the pot surprisingly made it into the quarter-finals of the cup against Mainz (3-1) during the week and has been playing a strong league season so far (11th place before the matchday).
Read the live ticker for the game of 1. FC Köln at VfL Bochum here…
VfL Bochum – 1. FC Cologne 2: 2
VfL Bochum: Riemann – Stafylidis (66th Gamboa), Bella Kotchap, Leitsch, Danilo Soares – Losilla (K) – Löwen, Rexhbecaj – Pantovic (66th Asano), Holtmann – Locadia (56th Polter)
1. FC Cologne: Schwäbe – Schmitz, Kilian, Hübers, Hector (K) – Özcan – Schaub (61. Thielmann), Ljubicic, Kainz – Modeste, Duda (61. J. Horn)
referee: Matthias Joellenbeck (Fribourg)
Gates: 1: 0 Holtmann (25th), 1: 1 Hübers (36th). 1-2 Modeste (45′), 2-2 Asano (70′)
Goal for VfL Bochum
68th: Another ball close to the goal – but Bella Kotchap’s shot from afar is easy for Schwäbe to watch. The FC is now more stable.
66th: Change orgy instead of game flow at the moment: At Bochum Cristian Gamboa and Takuma Asano replace Stafylidis and Pantovic. True to position.
64th: Ljubicic also has to go down, trotts dazed off the field. Mark Uth comes onto the meadow and gives the ten from now on.
62nd: Captain Hector moves into midfield, next to Özcan, Thielmann takes over at the front right. Looks more like 4-2-3-1 at FC now.
61st: Baumgart brings Jannes Horn and Jan Thielmann for Schaub and Duda.
60th: Hector hits ex-colleague Rexhbecaj from behind in the Achilles tendon, well-deserved yellow card.
58th: At least the billy goats are now keeping the game away from their own box better. They haven’t appeared in front of Riemann since Hector’s graduation a good ten minutes ago.
56th: The Bochum top scorer doesn’t have the same qualities as his Dutch colleague on the counterattack, but of course he still has a lot of scoring potential.
55th: Jürgen Locadia, who caused a lot of problems for Cologne’s central defense, is injured – Sebastian Polter is getting ready.
53: And there’s the next big chance! First Schwäbe parried against Holtmann’s distance attempt. Pantovic puts the rebound back on Löwen, who shoots from seven meters to the second floor! The Bochumers fail on themselves…
52nd: The people of Cologne have to make an effort to separate the hosts from the ball at all.
49th: VfL immediately works to equalize and is back in the game straight away.
47th: For their part, Bochum counterattacked immediately, but Löwen didn’t get the last pass to the teammate.
46th: Hector tries it straight away, the shot goes wide of the goal to the right.
46th: Both teams continue unchanged in terms of personnel.
46th: Can the billy goats build on the performance high at the end of the first half? There is hardly any potential for improvement in efficiency, but there is in defensive stability and playful performance….
Kick-off for the second half of 1. FC Köln’s game at VfL Bochum
Mid-term conclusion: Bochum was actually the better team right from the start, repeatedly outsmarting FC with quick switching games. Holtmann’s goal in the 25th minute was exactly the same – and it was absolutely deserved. Holtmann himself (17th) and Locadia (34th, 40th) continued to miss good opportunities.
The Cologne team punished that incredibly dryly: Hübers scored from a corner (36th) and Modeste suddenly cleverly scored the lead shortly before the break (45th). Meaningful: FC only missed one real chance to score in the first 45 minutes (Modeste, 23′).
Final whistle of the first half in the match between 1. FC Köln and VfL Bochum
45th: Yeaaaa! Kainz chips the ball after winning the ball on the center line with fixed thoughts behind the Bochum chain and finds Modeste. The star striker has plenty of time and cheekily overtakes VfL keeper Bochum, who was way ahead of his box.
Goal for 1. FC Cologne
44th: Anything else happening before the break?
43: At least it is now an open game, instead of in midfield, the leather is usually found in or on one of the two penalty areas.
41st: Now the Cologne counterattack, but ultimately do not come to an end. There was more possible!
40th: On the other hand, Schwäbe is again challenged against Locadia. The FC equalizer on Castroper Straße is not really deserved…
38th: First goal for the summer signing – last week against Bayern the crossbar was still in the way.
36th: Compensation out of (almost) nothing! The FC tried hard, but actually harmless. A standard sets it up: Kainz brings the corner from the right, Özcan keeps the ball hot. The ball lands on Hübers, who threw it into the net from five meters.
Goal for 1. FC Cologne
35th: So far, the keeper is by far the best Cologne player on the pitch.
34th: phew! It could now also be 0: 2 from Cologne’s point of view. Locadia fails from six, seven meters at a strong foot defense by Schwäbe.
32nd: Back on the field: VfL remains the more dangerous team, Bella Kotchap misses the goal with a header.
30th: As if his team’s weak game wasn’t enough, Baumgart also has a nerve-racking fan breathing down his neck. But the FC coach replied coolly and dryly to “Shut up!”: “Certainly not!”
28th: The FC tries to get an immediate answer, try it with the tried and tested flanks.
25th: Professionally countered! After a Schmitz throw-in, Bochum simply hit the ball in the direction of the center line – from there Locadia picks up speed and takes Holtmann on the right in the penalty area. This time the wing striker gets the ball past Schwäbe, 1-0 Bochum. The FC defense was just way, way too slow…
Goal for VfL Bochum
23rd: But now! Ljubicic comes through on the left and finds the free Modeste in the penalty area. But the conclusion flies over the box. top chance!
21st: The guests continue to find it extremely difficult to playfully find their way forward. There can hardly be any talk of goal danger anyway.
20th: In the first 20 minutes, Bochum is without a doubt the slightly better team.
18th: Bella Kotchap gives Modeste a header in midfield, but the FC striker is quickly back up.
17th: Now the hosts counterattack: Holtmann, who is as fast as an arrow, runs away from Kilian, but in the end the angle becomes too acute. Schwäbe can clean up.
15th: Modeste initially heads a VfL free kick out of the danger zone, but on the second attempt Holtmann’s cross ends up wide.
13th: Both teams still hardly manage longer ball possession phases.
11th: First FC approach: Kilian gets his skull after Schaub corner. Easy finger exercise for Riemann.
9th: Bochum again! Holtmann chips the ball sensitively to Losilla, who takes the ball with his chest and shoots it straight away. Schwäbe is there, but the Frenchman was also offside. Still, it’s too easy!
8th.: On the other hand, the Cologne team have not yet managed to make a promising ball contact in the vicinity of the VfL goal.
6th: On the contrary! Bochum has the first chance of the game: After a low cross, Pantovic is completely blank in the penalty area, Hector had completely lost sight of him. Pantovic only hits the FC captain with his shot.
6th: The billy goats try to calm the game down a bit, but don’t really succeed.
4th: The ball is quickly gone on both sides in the first few minutes. Hardly coherent.
3rd: Kilian runs a first long ball confidently.
2nd: No system change! Ljubicic seems to start on ten, Duda joins Modeste in the front line.
1.: The white rolls over the green – can the people of Cologne expand their cushion on relegation place 16 with a win to a whopping twelve points?
Kick-off in the match between 1. FC Köln and VfL Bochum
6:28 p.m.: The impartial Matthias Jöllenbeck will open the game in a few moments with his whistle. He already whistled for FC in the 3-1 home win against Greuther Fürth on the seventh day. The video assistant is lawn pensioner Günter Perl.
6:25 p.m.: Only 750 fans are allowed to cheer for VfL on Castroper Strasse today – bitter for the traditional club, which has so far scored 17 of its 23 season points at home. For their part, the Cologne side have been unbeaten away from home for four games (twice 1-1 in Mainz and Bielefeld, 3-2 in Wolfsburg, most recently 3-1 at Hertha).
6.20 p.m.: The club statistics speak even more clearly for the Cologne team: It is the 60th meeting of the clubs in the Bundesliga, the billy goats have won a strong 33 times (11 Bochum wins, 15 draws).
6.15 p.m.: By the way, the balance between the two is the same as the result of the first leg: 2:1 for Baumgart. The trainers were able to record one win each in the 2020/21 season in the second division – at that time Baumgart was still coaching SC Paderborn.
6:10 p.m.: The second explosive personality of the evening is the friendly duel on the sidelines: FC coach Steffen Baumgart and Bochum coach Thomas Reis completed the football teacher together in 2014/15. The contact is still maintained closely, the mutual appreciation is enormous.
6:05 p.m.: Ex-Cologne Elvis Rexhbecaj has matured into an absolute top performer at VfL (on loan from Wolfsburg) and has been on the field in all (!) season games so far. The highlight of his FC time, on the other hand, was without a doubt the derby brace against Mönchengladbach almost a year ago (February 6, 2021)…
6 p.m.: Incidentally, there are no personal surprises with the Bochum hosts. Coach Thomas Reis starts with this team: Riemann – Stafylidis, Bella Kotchap, Leitsch, Danilo Soares – Losilla (K) – Löwen, Rexhbecaj – Pantovic, Holtmann – Locadia. Compared to the cup victory against Mainz (3:1) only two changes, instead of Gamboa and Osterhage Stafylidis and Löwen start.
5:55 p.m.: Baumgart may be planning a joker win with today’s line-up like in the first leg – after all, Mark Uth has already scored twice after being substituted on, Schindler blossomed into the “Joker King” in December. In the first half of the season, however, it was Schaub and Lemperle who secured the 2-1 win from the bench with their goals.
5.50 p.m.: Timo Horn is still missing from the squad with a training deficit, during the week Baumgart had already decided on Schwäbe as the new number one. Marvin Obuz is still ill. Ellyes Skhiri is still at the Africa Cup of Nations, his Tunisians have to play against tough opponents Nigeria in the round of 16 tomorrow (January 23, 8 p.m.).
5.45 p.m.: So today on the FC bench: Jonas Urbig – Sebastian Andersson, Mark Uth, Kingsley Schindler, Kingsley Ehizibue, Jannes Horn, Tim Lemperle, Jan Thielmann and Tomas Ostrak.
5.40 p.m.: The fact that there is a reverse rotation at FC compared to the bitter cup defeat against HSV is not shocking: Schmitz, Özcan and Duda, Kainz, Schaub and return for Ehizibue, Jannes Horn, Schindler, Thielmann, Uth and Andersson Modest back. Lots of switching games, going back to the established staff.
5.35 p.m.: So Baumgart brought a small personal surprise to the Ruhrpott: No Mark Uth or Jan Thielmann – instead Duda, Ljubicic, Kainz AND Schaub. Is Duda moving up to the front next to Modeste, like in Bielefeld, or is there a system change?
5.30 p.m.: The billy goat lineup is here: Marvin Schwäbe – Benno Schmitz, Luca Kilian, Timo Hübers, Jonas Hector (K) – Salih Özcan – Louis Schaub, Dejan Ljubicic, Florian Kainz – Anthony Modeste, Ondrej Duda
5:25 p.m.: Welcome to the FC live ticker at (unusual) top game time! The Cologne team faces a tough fight against the mini-defeat series in Bochum’s Ruhrstadion today. Points should be scored again, the clear statement from coach Steffen Baumgart: “We’re going there to win.”