Cologne threatens preliminary round: 0: 2 in Belgrade

Created: 10/13/2022, 6:58 p.m

Igor Vujacic (r) from Partizan Belgrade against Benno Schmitz from 1. FC Köln.

© Darko Vojinovic/AP/dpa

All hopes of an away coup turn out to be wishful thinking.

Like a week ago, Cologne lost to Belgrade.

This minimizes the chances of the knockout stages in the Conference League.

Belgrade - No fans, no points - 1. FC Köln suffered another setback in the fight for the round of 16 in the Conference League.

After the 0: 2 (0: 1) at Partizan Belgrade, the chances for the team of soccer teacher Steffen Baumgart on the knockout round are only small.

As in the 0:1 at home against Belgrade and the 2:5 in the league derby at Borussia Mönchengladbach, the Cologne team, who had to do without their own supporters after the riots in Nice in the Serbian capital, had to pay tribute to their ongoing shortage of personnel.

In front of around 15,000 spectators in the Serbian capital, the opposing goalscorers Fousseni Diabaté (15th minute) and Ricardo Gomez (52nd) sealed the third defeat within a week.

Before the two remaining group games against OGC Nice and 1. FC Slovacko, Cologne are third in the table (4 points) and four points behind the Serbs.

Only the first in the group qualifies for the round of 16.

The eight second move into an upstream knockout round against the eight Europa League relegated.

For the clubs in third and fourth place, the European Cup season is over after the group stage.

Without the injured professionals Jeff Chabot, Mathias Olesen, Jan Thielmann, Sebastian Andersson and Dejan Ljubicic, the Cologne team got off to a false start.

After a major mistake by defender Timo Hübers, Diabaté was there and put the hosts ahead with a shot from close range into the far corner.

As in Cologne, Partizan played this early 1:0 into the cards.

Despite all efforts, the FC didn't create chances against the tightly staggered defense of the opponent for a long time.

The efforts of the guests were made more difficult by two game interruptions of around ten minutes each, which the referee was forced to do in the first half due to the fog in the stadium caused by pyrotechnics.

At the second interruption after about half an hour, he sent the players off the field.

After the professionals returned to the field and the restart, Belgrade was closer to 2-0 than FC to the equalizer: Queensy Menig hit the crossbar just before half-time.

Only at the beginning of the second half did the previously harmless Cologne team have the chance to make it 1-1, through Sargis Adamyan (47th), whose shot from the turn was too harmless.

However, this scene was not the starting shot for a turnaround: Just five minutes later, Ricardo Gomes beat three opponents in the six-yard box and increased his header to make it 2-0 for Belgrade.

That was the preliminary decision.

Although the FC pushed for the goal, they could not shake the Partizan defense.

dpa