Friday game in the Bundesliga
Status: 09.03.2023 6:05 p.m
When 1. FC Köln host VfL Bochum on Friday evening (8.30 p.m.) for the NRW duel, a goal spectacle is not to be expected. Both teams have failed to score in four of their last five games.
When 1. FC Köln defeated Werder Bremen 7-1 on matchday 16 in mid-January, no one would have believed that the Rhinelanders would fail to score in five of the following seven league games. Cologne only scored in the 1-1 draw at Bayern and 3-0 against Frankfurt. In contrast, there is a 0:3 in Stuttgart, a 0:2 in Wolfsburg and three goalless draws in Gelsenkirchen, against Leipzig and most recently at Union Berlin.
In the last three games, FC was zero in front. It’s been eight games since a Cologne striker scored a goal: Steffen Tigges scored twice in the thrashing of Werder. Otherwise, the striker rate is meager: Tigges with five goals and Florian Dietz and Sargis Adamyan with one goal each. Seven striker goals in a total of 32 Cologne goals – that was it.
FC coach Steffen Baumgart is happy about another option in the attacking department: Davie Selke, who recently suffered a new winter signing, could be in the starting XI against Bochum. “Davie is completely healthy again. He will be a candidate not only to be in the squad but also to play from the start,” said Baumgart ahead of the game about the striker, who lost 0-0 at 1. FC Union Berlin had been on the bench for 90 minutes.
So far, however, Selke has not scored any goals in his six appearances in the red and white jersey. In addition to Tigges, this was primarily ensured by the two midfield players Ellyes Skhiri and Florian Kainz with five goals each, the latter is also the team’s top scorer with seven assists. In Berlin, the Cologne team had missed many good chances and failed several times due to the strong Union keeper Frederik Rönnow.
But in contrast to the rather meager performances against Wolfsburg and in Stuttgart, the appearance at the Alte Försterei gave hope again. “The lads are working very well, so I hope we can do it”, Baumgart is also in good spirits, but warns of the game against the bottom: “Bochum is difficult to play with and is able to achieve results that nobody expects .” Bochum started very aggressively, “they already have their weapons. It will be a difficult game. We shouldn’t be blinded by the results,” said Baumgart.
And by that he means the last four games in Westphalia: 0:3 at Bayern, 0:2 against Freiburg, 0:3 in Bremen and most recently the 0:2 against Schalke, which pushed VfL to the bottom of the table. VfL has now suffered four bankruptcies in a row. A result that nobody had expected beforehand, as Baumgart said, was certainly the previous game against Hoffenheim, in which coach Thomas Letsch’s team surprisingly won 5-2.
But the task in the cathedral city will not be easy for VfL. In 37 Bundesliga appearances as a guest of 1. FC Köln, the Westphalians went home 28 times without points. At least seven times Bochum took at least one point to Castroper Straße.
The recent defeat against their direct competitor from Gelsenkirchen certainly didn’t help the Westphalians’ self-confidence either. If you add VfL’s weakness away from home this season (one win, eleven defeats with 7:35 goals), Bochum would certainly not mind if the goal drought at FC should last for at least one more game.
