The 1. FC Köln won their continued Conference League match at 1. FC Slovacko on Friday. It is still unclear whether the league will continue on Sunday.
1. FC Köln have secured the best possible starting position for next week’s preliminary round final in the Conference League in a resumed match. On Friday lunchtime, a penalty goal from substitute Ondrej Duda (82nd minute) led to FC’s important 1-0 win (0-0) at 1 FC Slovacko from the Czech Republic. Before that, Florian Kainz had already missed a penalty kick (51st). On Thursday evening, the match had been abandoned after seven because of thick fog. Linton Maina, who had to leave the field injured, was a cause for concern on Friday.
Next Thursday, the team of coach Steffen Baumgart will play against OGC Nice to advance. Slovacko, on the other hand, have been eliminated early. After five matchdays, Cologne are in third place with seven points behind Nice and Partizan Belgrade (both 8). The top of the group advances directly to the round of 16. The runner-up will first play against one of the eight Europa League relegated teams in a preliminary knockout round.
It is still unclear whether the Bundesliga match on Sunday against TSG Hoffenheim will take place as planned or be postponed. According to the Cologne team, they are in close contact with the German Football League and Hoffenheim, who would be willing to postpone the match.
The match, which was abandoned on Thursday due to heavy fog, was restarted on Friday lunchtime under regular conditions in the seventh minute of the match with a throw-in by Cologne. More than 1,000 FC supporters were again in attendance on Friday. “We were already thrilled yesterday how many FC fans found their way here, even though we didn’t sell tickets. The fact that they are here again today is anything but a matter of course,” said Cologne’s sports managing director Christian Keller on RTL+.
Because of the riots at Cologne’s first away game in this Conference League season in Nice on 8 September, the Cologne team itself had not been allowed to sell tickets. However, some supporters had apparently secured tickets for the game in the Czech Republic before the game in Nice or had obtained tickets in other ways.
They saw a Cologne team that, at an unaccustomed time, only had better chances to score after the break. Before the break, the better team from the Rhineland had hardly created any chances. Kainz then missed a great opportunity to take the lead five minutes after the break. The Austrian shot a foul penalty weakly into the arms of Czech keeper Filip Nguyen.
Another good chance was missed by substitute Duda (77th), before he made the victory clear five minutes later. Now FC coach Baumgart in particular is hoping for a postponement of the game against Hoffenheim. “I think it would be good if the game against Hoffenheim was postponed. If the possibility exists, we would like to do it. We will see what is possible. We should tackle that,” Baumgart had said on Thursday evening. Baumgart had sent his captain Jonas Hector and attacker Mark Uth, who were still struggling on the FC bench, back to Cologne in the evening so that they could regenerate better.