1. FC Union missed the leap onto the Champions League place

Andreas Luthe waved his arms, tripped from left to right, and craned his neck. But none of it helped. Anthony Modeste had built himself up right in front of him and did not even think about allowing Union goalkeeper a clear field of vision so that he could set his free kick wall. So Luthe took the last resort and tackled the troublemaker himself. A little push and the problem was solved. However, this led to another, because referee Tobias Stieler showed Modeste and then Luthe the yellow card.

The scene symbolized a hectic early phase at Unions Bundesliga game in Cologne, in which it was already 1: 1 after less than ten minutes, but which in the end did not find a winner. In the overall performance-based 2: 2 (1: 2), Modeste met twice for Cologne and Julian Ryerson and Grischa Prömel for Berlin.

“I do believe that it was possible to win here today. It’s a bit of a shame that it’s only one point, ”said Luthe after the game at Dazn. Cologne coach Steffen Baumgart did not fully agree with the performance of his team, but finally gave a small compliment to the Union: “When I see who we played against here today, everything is fine.”

Urs Fischer had changed his team to five positions after the 1: 2 in the Conference League against Feyenoord Rotterdam on Thursday: Timo Baumgartl, Niko Gießelmann, Julian Ryerson, Grischa Prömel and Taiwo Awoniyi started instead of Paul Jaeckel, Christopher Trimmel, Levin Öztunali , Kevin Behrens and Tymoteusz Puchacz. But Union couldn’t really sort it out, because Baumgartl had to put on a turban after a few minutes because of a laceration on his head and as soon as he was back on the field, it was already 1-0 for the hosts. After winning the ball, Cologne switched over at lightning speed. Florian Kainz pulled off brilliantly from almost 25 meters and chased the ball against the crossbar, Modeste sank the rebound with little effort.

The FC was intoxicated for a moment

Now it could have been critical for Union, because driven by 50,000 spectators, the FC was intoxicated for a moment. However, something like that can backfire – and it did. Just 124 seconds after Cologne’s opening goal, Ryerson equalized with a deliberate low shot in the short. Union was now better in the game, also because the defensive order was right.

Although the Berliners largely left the initiative to the opponent, they tried again and again with early pressing in the Cologne penalty area. And that should pay off shortly before the break, when Rafael Czichos lost the ball under pressure and Prömel scored 2-1 after a pass from Genki Haraguchi. Awoniyi almost managed to score the third Union goal before the break, but after a fine individual action he shot from a close range over the Cologne box.

After the change, Steffen Baumgart’s team got off to a stormy start and had the first chances. However, there were remarkable spaces for Union early in the second half, but they were not used because the Berliners often played their counterattacks only imprecisely. Nevertheless, Union presented itself overall more mature than the impetuous Kölrers and the feared fatigue after the many games in the past weeks was not to be seen for a long time.

Ten minutes before the end, the first FC fans lost their patience and acknowledged the increasingly unimaginative offensive efforts of their team with grumbling. But if nothing works in football, there are still standards. And so it was Modeste again, who headed to 2-2 after a corner kick and then put on his coach’s flat cap. Baumgart wanted even more and in fact Kainz still had the winning goal on his feet, but in the end it would have been a bit too much of a bad thing for the strong Berliners. (Tsp)