UEFA Europa League – Broke in chaos game against Arsenal
Thanks to the legendary Stöger season, 1. FC Köln will appear in the UEFA Europa League for the first time in 2017/18. Arsenal FC is waiting for the debut.
London – On May 20, 2017, all the dams in Cologne burst. On the final day of the Bundesliga season, 1. FC Köln entered the UEFA Europa League in fifth place. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a beer shower for trainer Peter Stöger, Anthony Modeste being carried on his hands or thousands of fans tucking a piece of the RheinEnergie Stadium’s lawn in their trouser pockets – in the city on the Rhine, everyone is tap-dancing. The club and supporters only have to wait four months before things get back to business after a 25-year dry spell in the European Cup.
1. FC Köln: Top Los Arsenal is waiting in the group stage
But already on August 25, the day of the draw in the Principality of Monaco, it was clear which teams will be waiting for Cologne in the group stage. And the Losfee has a big surprise in store for FC: On the first day of the game, the Bundesliga club has to go to Arsenal in London: “With Arsenal we have by far the best-ranked team in our group,” says Stöger, commenting on his team’s expected duel. In addition, two opponents and three, namely Bate Borisov from Belarus and the Serbs from Red Star Belgrade, almost seem like rewarding tasks due to the charisma of the gunners. Lukas Podolski, who does not miss the ceremony, tweets with anticipation of the game between his two former clubs: “Great! The best draw for me!”
UEFA Europa League: 1. FC Köln meets Arsenal
Almost three weeks later, on September 14th, everything is set for the Europa Party at the Emirates Stadium. In terms of sport, however, there are few cheerleaders in the phase in question: 1. FC Köln is on a washed-up descent in the league, after the first three Bundesliga games with zero points it can undoubtedly be spoken of as an absolute false start. The Mainz newcomer Jhon Cordoba, whose 17 million euros transfer fee devoured a large part of Modeste’s income and the qualification premium for the Euro-League, does not really want to ignite yet. Nothing helps – in the hope that everything will get better in England, the people of Cologne and their football-mad supporters travel to London.
Arsenal FC – 1. FC Cologne
► Contest: UEFA Europa League (group stage, matchday 1)
► Date: September 14, 2017
► Location: Emirates Stadium, London
► Result: 3:1 (0:0)
► Goals 1. FC Cologne: Jhon Cordoba (9th)
► Goals Arsenal FC: Sead Kolasinac (49th), Alexis Sanchez (67th), Hector Bellerin (82nd)
1. FC Cologne: Chaos before the game starts
Arrived in England, the Cologne fans only feel a little of the strains of the past weeks of the league. On the contrary: around 15,000 loud, overly motivated people came from Germany to loudly support the pros on the pitch. Parts of central London were paralyzed that Thursday evening and noise in front of the stadium was taken care of accordingly.
However, the whole thing quickly takes on an ugly shape: in the end, only a fraction of the reliable horde can go to the stadium. The Londoners had only offered 2900 guest tickets for sale and announced in advance that no neutral seats would be given to Cologne fans. The police must intervene quickly and pull hundreds of troublemakers out of circulation. After several announcements, the kick-off was postponed from 9:05 p.m. to 10:05 p.m., when the ball finally rolled across the perfectly manicured lawn. Arsene Wenger – who has now been on the Arsenal sidelines for 21 years – describes his thoughts on this extraordinary incident after the end of the game: “They were very clever, I don’t know how they did it, but they infiltrated the audience, they were everywhere .” Shortly after the first sound of the whistle, you can hear that the arena is firmly in Rhenish hands in terms of atmosphere.
1. FC Cologne against Arsenal: dream start thanks to Cordoba hammer
The game ripples along for the first few minutes. However, the general probing came to an abrupt end in the 9th minute when Arsenal keeper David Ospina tried to clear a ball in front of FC striker Simon Zoller. His save lands right on the foot of Modeste’s successor Cordoba, who switches immediately and shoots from almost 40 meters – 1-0 for the clear outside. The Colombian, who can’t hold back his emotions for a millisecond, runs straight to Stöger, who is also under criticism, and lets himself be celebrated. His second goal in a competitive game – he had already netted in the first round of the DFB Cup against Leher TS Bremerhaven in the fifth division – came at the right time, and not only from a personal point of view.
After that, the home side, who are also doing rather moderately in the Premier League with six points after four games, seem to be a little more alert and try to put center forward Olivier Giroud in the limelight. But the people of Cologne, who can now be heard singing in the entire arena, continue to prick little. After 15 minutes, Zoller took a ball with his chest in the English penalty area in an exemplary manner, the defense center around Rob Holding and world champion Per Mertesacker was able to intervene at the last moment before it became extremely dangerous.
Arsenal then took matters more into their own hands, with the lightning-fast right winger Theo Walcott repeatedly raising the alarm in front of Timo Horn’s goal. Cologne’s left-back Konstantin Rausch had a brilliant inspiration in the 30th minute and made it 2-0. Unfortunately, Zoller, who slipped in, missed his long flat pass from the center line into the penalty area by a hair’s breadth. Since Jonas Hector collided with the goalkeeper when trying to get at Ospina’s high-five ball, Stöger had to make a change after 35 minutes and send Milos Jojic onto the field. Although the impacts on the Cologne goal are increasing, the guests can save the narrow lead at half-time.
1. FC Köln: Arsenal turns up and wins the game
After the break, the Wenger boys got off to a better start. Central defender Holding stays in the dressing room and is replaced by the much more offensive Sead Kolasinac. His substitution paid off just four minutes later, to the chagrin of the Cologne team: the failed cross from teammate Walcott a few meters from the left goalpost, which was blocked by FC defender Lukas Klünter, landed on the instep of Kolasinac, who fired a powerful shot into the right corner of the goal fires. On top of that, the goalscorer pulls up his jersey to the ensuing cheering and presents a T-shirt from his ex-employer FC Schalke 04 with the inscription “North curve”. An action that, due to the fan rivalry between S04 and FC, is unlikely to go down particularly well after viewing the TV images.
Arsenal are now pushing for the opening goal and are rewarded for their efforts in the 67th minute. Whirlwind Alexis Sanchez dribbles from the billy goats’ left edge of the box and aims for the far corner of Horn’s goal. The Chilean, who couldn’t have hit the ball better, is able to kneel moments later and be celebrated for his one-on-one strike.
In the final phase, there was nothing more from Köln, who only caught one final eye-catcher in the 71st minute in the form of Cordoba in front of the opposing goal. On the London side, however, the supporters are waiting for the decision, which is only a matter of time. In the 82nd minute, Kolasinac intervened again with an attack. His cross from the left into the sixteen, intended for Jack Wilshere, finds its way to Walcott in a roundabout way. Horn fails from close range, defender Hector Bellerin’s scraper, who reaches the ball faster than Marco Höger, then puts the lid on.
After two minutes of added time, referee Estrada Fernández ended the game. At the microphone, those responsible from Germany are torn between pride and disappointment: “They couldn’t think of much. In the second half they turned it up. Of course it’s bitter when we concede such dream goals. But I think we did well and showed that we can keep up,” says captain Matthias Lehmann. One day after the bankruptcy, the club got the bad news from the Cologne clinic at the MediaPark: Hector will be out for months with a syndesmosis ligament tear on his right ankle.
The misfortune takes its course
The riots, primarily announced by the Cologne fans, caused a massive tremor in the press: “Night of Shame in the Emirates was a sad throwback to the hooligan days of the 80s,” headlines the English one, among others Mirror. But the dubious behavior of those who traveled with them did not only have consequences in the media: UEFA fined the club €60,000, against which the club has appealed.
Nevertheless, many fans seem unteachable: Also in the game against Red Star Belgrade, dated December 7, there are riots that ultimately cost the club 40,000 euros. Stöger, who can only collect three points after 14 match days in the German upper house, has to pack his bags four days before the away riots in Belgrade.
The promising 2017/18 season, which an entire metropolis had been looking forward to, ended in the summer of 2018 with a lot of disillusionment. 1. FC Köln are eliminated from the Europa League after the group stage, in the DFB Cup they are defeated by Schalke in the round of 16 and in the Bundesliga, bottom of the table, they draw another ticket for the second class.
On a financial level, the catastrophe year is ironically a real blessing: the profit after tax, which the management around Alexander Wehrle made at the general meeting on October 10, 2018, increases by 6.2 million euros to 17.3 million euros compared to the Preseason 2016/17.
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