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Cologne's Florian Dietz (r.) missed a great opportunity, Belgrade's Svetozar Marković (l.) scored the winning goal
Photo: Alex Grimm/Getty Images
1. FC Köln lost for the first time on the third day of the new Conference League season.
Despite a decent but not very creative performance, the Bundesliga club Partizan Belgrade lost 0-1 (0-1).
Svetozar Marković scored the early winning goal in the ninth minute in front of 50,000 spectators.
The game had barely started when the guests from Serbia took the lead.
Marković made it 1-0 with a header from close range (9').
After that, the Cologne team was the better team and kept coming through on the flanks.
After a strong cross, Sargis Adamyan headed the crossbar (23').
Shortly thereafter, Cologne attacker Florian Dietz had a huge chance to equalize, but was allowed five meters in front of the goal and shot Belgrade keeper Aleksandar Popovic (32nd).
Uth returns
Before the break, the guests almost added more, but Cologne goalkeeper Marvin Schwäbe was just able to scrape a ball off the line (41st).
Although Cologne coach Steffen Baumgart diligently made substitutions in the second half and wanted to strengthen the offensive, Belgrade became more dangerous again.
Schwäbe had to intervene twice within three minutes, once against Queensy Menig (62'), a short time later after a shot by Andrija Pavlovic (64').
It wasn't much for Cologne.
Substitute Mark Uth, who had been out for months due to an operation on his pubic bone, could do little to change that and came on for Ondrej Duda (71st).
After that, Belgrade played down the clock, players kept lying down for a long time.
Much to the displeasure of the Cologne players and fans.
Both teams then missed great chances in the final minutes of the game.
After the bankruptcy, 1. FC Köln still have all the options in the Conference League.
Group D leader is Belgrade with five points, Cologne is third with four points.
Nice (5) ranked second, winning 1-0 in a parallel game at bottom-placed 1. FC Slovácko (1).
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