VfL Bochum must travel to 1. FC Köln in the Bundesliga on Friday (20:30). From Bochum’s point of view, there are more rewarding away trips.

These days, the Bundesliga team VfL Bochum is desperately looking for encouragement. An away trip to 1. FC Köln has not been one of them in the past.

And it is there, of all places, that the VfL must go on Friday evening in order to turn things around. After the 0:2 in the Revier derby against FC Schalke, VfL slipped to last place in the Bundesliga.

It was the fourth league defeat in a row, having previously lost to Bayern Munich, Werder Bremen and SC Freiburg. Added to that was the cup defeat against TSG Hoffenheim.

And now it’s off to Cologne – with an away record that could hardly be worse. One win, eleven defeats, makes 18th place in the away table. Add to that the record in Cologne, which is similar to the record in Bremen.

There, before the 0:3 a few weeks ago, there was one win in 35 attempts, now one win in 36 attempts. It doesn’t look much different in Cologne. The duel has taken place 37 times in official matches in the cathedral city. The VfL managed two victories, there were also seven draws and a whopping 28 defeats.

The last meeting in pre-season was won 2-1 by FC, with Simon Zoller only managing to score the equaliser in injury time. However, one of Bochum’s two victories was not so long ago. In the 2018/19 second division season, at the end of which Cologne were promoted and VfL finished eleventh, Bochum won 3-2 in Cologne. Lukas Hinterseer (2) and Sidney Sam scored, while Marcel Risse and Simon Terodde were successful for Cologne.

So four men from the current squad know what it’s like to win in Cologne. Manuel Riemann, Anthony Losilla and Danilo Soares were in the starting eleven, Silveré Ganvoula was substituted. The current managing director of sport, Patrick Fabian, was also on the pitch at the time.