Ahead of the top game against Hannover 96, 1. FC Cologne tested against Alemannia Aachen. Luca Kilian was in the starting lineup after a long injury absence, and Marvin Obuz also got a chance.
On Tuesday, November 26, 1. FC Köln trained behind closed doors against third division team Alemannia Aachen. Back in the lineup was central defender Luca Kilian, who had already suffered a cruciate ligament rupture in March and was out for a correspondingly long time.
FC coach Gerhard Struber was pleased with the comeback of his protégé: “The game went well for him today, and his body showed no negative reaction after an eight-month break. He seems really stable, and now he needs playing time to get back into the automatic responses that we currently have in our style of play.”
The 25-year-old started as the right center back in the back three. Also in the starting lineup: Marvin Obuz, who caused a sensation from the outset. Obuz, who scored 21 goals for Rot-Weiss Essen in the 3rd division last season, took a shot on the 26th minute that hit the inside of the post. Only the upright kept Aachen from falling behind at the break.
Obuz was also the center of attention in the second half: the 22-year-old won the ball on the baseline and laid it off for Denis Huseinbasic. His attempt was blocked just before the line. Luca Waldschmidt finally made the well-deserved 1-0 for the FC (76′). Eric Martel increased the lead to 2-0 shortly before the end (86′).
Aachen’s keeper Elias Bördner did not cut a good figure in either goal. When Waldschmidt scored the 1-0, the ball slipped through his legs, and when the 2-0 was scored, he lacked conviction and orientation when coming out, so he couldn’t get hold of the ball – Martel just had to push it in.
After the hard-fought win against Münster, Cologne has now won 1-0 three times in a row in the league – and kept a clean sheet in the friendly against Aachen as well. A successful dress rehearsal for the top-of-the-table clash against Hannover 96. “We were once again very solid defensively in both halves. We kept the opposition well away from our goal,” said head coach Gerhard Struber, praising his team’s performance.
He also used the friendly to get an idea of players who otherwise get less playing time. “It was good to get an impression of many players who haven’t been getting much playing time lately,” he said after the game. Marvin Obuz definitely falls into this category: the 22-year-old from Cologne has only played 30 minutes in the second division – clearly not enough for a player his age.
According to Kicker information, Struber used the test to give playing time to players who were really close to playing time in the real competition – Steffen Tigges, Sargis Adamyan and Florian Dietz are obviously further away than Obuz: of this offensive trio, only Tigges got a few minutes after the break before he was substituted again.