Derby winner Salih Özcan receives special praise from Baumgart
Salih Özcan’s development in the last few weeks was definitely impressive. Since the 8th matchday, the midfielder of 1. FC Köln has been on the pitch for the full 90 minutes without a break. The 23-year-old is one of the most important players against Borussia Mönchengladbach on Saturday.
“I’m not really one to single out someone, but I single out Sali today. He fought a lot of important duels, which the team fought over and over again ”, head coach Steffen Baumgart after the 4-1 victory. “As a boy from Cologne, he only used the derby, but surely had a lot of fun in the duel. That was very important to us. ”
Özcan is voted player of the game
Of course, this combative performance did not go unnoticed by the fans of the cathedral city dwellers. The 23-year-old, who won his fourth derby, was voted Player of the Game. “I’m happy that I was able to improve my statistics with a 100% win rate in the derby today. It was an outstanding team performance over the entire 90 minutes, ”stated Özcan on record.
After the first section there was nothing to be seen on the display board. The two teams first say goodbye in the dressing room without a goal. “Although we didn’t take the chance in the first run, we went into the break with a good feeling. In the second half we delivered and made the fans proud. “
The tenacity paid off for the billy goats in the end. “We have already seen in previous games that we get the chances if we press the opponent high. We are just proud now. The plan was to take away the fun of the Gladbach family. We managed to do that well. In the end it is rightly 4: 1 for us. We were snappier. “
There can only be one player in the game: Salih Özcan! 🔴⚪
What a strong performance by the Kölschen Jung, right? #effzehFans? 😍
He remains unbeaten in his fourth derby. Congratulations, Salih! 🙌 pic.twitter.com/fQsc0kHPWa– 1. FC Köln (@fckoeln) November 28, 2021
LIGAINSIDER AVERAGE GRADE in the past FOUR years