The evening before there had been riots at the stadium. The night before! Cologne Ultras had come specifically to disturb Gladbach fans who were about to prepare a choreography. There were screams, running, flares. In the end, the police took 131 Cologne residents and 74 Gladbach residents into custody overnight and until after the game on Saturday. That was the martial overture to a “high-risk game”, which the next day no longer presented itself as such, but rather as a high-pulse game.
On Saturday, Cologne coach Timo Schulz gave a radio interview to WDR shortly before kick-off and said about his players’ mental preparation: “If you enter the field with a smile, then the ball will smile back.”
Ultimately, none of the players on the pitch elicited a smile from the ball in the bitter derby, but at least all of the 54,000 spectators in Borussia Park did, because it was a highly spectacular, goal- and twist-filled 98th Bundesliga derby between the Rhenish rivals. The guests took the lead twice through Faride Alidou, then Gladbach’s joker Robin Hack turned the 1:2 into a 3:2, and when you would have thought that the Gladbachers would be able to smile at the end, the 19-year-old substitute equalized Damion Downs with his first Bundesliga goal and the first Cologne joker goal of the season made the final score not entirely undeserved 3:3 (1:1).
“It was a huge spectacle for the fans,” said Cologne central defender Timo Hübers. Shortly after the game, the Cologne team wasn’t really sure what it was like for the players. “Mixed feelings,” said full-back Max Finkgräfe, the only Mönchengladbach native of all those involved. Austrian Florian Kainz found the derby “a bit chaotic on both sides,” “quite a wild game” – no wonder given that they conceded three goals each.
During the game everything remains peaceful in the stands
Cologne got off to a better start. With the help of Gladbach goalkeeper Moritz Nicolas, who had extended his contract until 2029 this week, Cologne right winger Faride Alidou scored from a tight angle to make it 1-0 after just six and a half minutes. The Gladbachers seemed shocked and only slowly recovered. But in the 32nd minute, winger Franck Honorat hit the ball into the net after Florian Neuhaus’s pass to make it 1-1. Everything was already balanced at halftime and there was a peaceful agreement in the stands.
Alidou again managed to give Cologne the lead again, heading the ball into the goal in the 69th minute to make it 2-1. The spectacular showdown immediately followed: In the 70th minute, Robin Hack came on for Gladbach, who gave the team a 3-2 lead in the 71st and 73rd minutes. But in the 75th minute, the young Downs came into play for Cologne’s double packer Alidou and he scored in the 79th minute to make the final score 3-3. In the end, it felt like the ball smiled back a little for everyone, but most of all for the well-entertained audience.
Double goalscorer Robin Hack complains about the equalizer
The Gladbachers, who had been a little closer to victory with more and better chances, only had to be annoyed afterwards that they had failed to get ahead of Cologne to twelve points in the table – so it remains at nine. “Overall we are disappointed,” admitted Gladbach coach Gerardo Seoane, even though he found the game “very entertaining” and “very fair”. “We would have liked to give the spectators a derby win,” said Seoane, especially since the first leg in Cologne was lost 3-1.
“We wanted too much after the 3-2,” said Gladbach’s near-match winner Hack, annoyed that despite the turnaround he had achieved in the meantime, it was only enough for a draw in the end. In his words: “This pisses me off!” Gladbach fans are likely to feel similarly when they consider that their Borussia have not won a single one of the six games they have already played this season against the bottom three of the table, Cologne, Mainz and Darmstadt. There are five draws and one defeat, so five out of 18 possible points. According to Coach Soane, the lack of assertiveness at times is what needs to be worked on: “It’s still a young team.”
2024-03-10 09:22:27
#Gladbach #Cologne #wild #game
