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Cologne's Jeff Chabot (l) and Hoffenheim's Ihlas Bebou try to get the ball
Photo: Rolf Vennenbernd / dpa
After another success, TSG Hoffenheim can dream of the Champions League.
At 1. FC Köln, coach Sebastian Hoeneß' team deservedly won 1-0 (0-0) and jumped to fourth place in the table with 43 points.
For the eighth-placed team from Cologne (36), on the other hand, it was a setback in the race for international places.
Stefan Posch (61.) headed TSG to eight wins in a row against FC.
Cologne's last success in the league against Hoffenheim came in April 2015 - at that time the current captain Jonas Hector scored the winning goal late.
Hector was absent from FC on Sunday, the former national player had signed off in the morning for personal reasons.
Without their “most important player” (FC coach Steffen Baumgart), Cologne initially had problems playing their powerful game in front of 37,500 spectators.
Space crosses, Posch hits his head
Hoffenheim had the first good chances – but Ihlas Bebou (20') initially headed the ball free-standing over the goal, then he hesitated too long in front of Marvin Schwäbe (25') and shortly afterwards couldn't get past the Cologne goalkeeper (37').
A little later, Cologne striker Anthony Modeste missed the great opportunity to take the lead: the Frenchman missed after a cross from Dejan Ljubicic (41st).
23 seconds had been played in the second half when Bebou headed the ball from five yards into the post of the Cologne goal.
It wasn't just in this scene that FC's newly formed defense had problems.
Jannes Horn played for Hector on left-back.
The last strong defender Timo Hübers, who was out due to a corona infection, was replaced by Jeff Chabot.
Hoffenheim missed a promising counterattack (51'), then suddenly Kevin Akpoguma had to clear Ljubicic (52') in dire straits.
The game became increasingly hectic, both teams lost the ball a lot and made inaccuracies.
But there was no lack of commitment, Hoeneß replaced the hapless Bebou with Georginio Rutter (56th).
Modeste's goal (59th) didn't count because it was clearly offside.
Shortly thereafter, Posch struck, and the Austrian headed a cross from national player David Raum into the goal to take the lead.
Cologne now had to take more risks, but Hoffenheim had the next huge chance, Christoph Baumgartner (67th) shot the ball against the post.
Because TSG continued to be careless with their opportunities, FC stayed in the game.
The Cologne final offensive with great opportunities through Sebastian Andersson (90th) and Tim Lemperle (90th + 1) was not rewarded.
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