Following the victories of Bayer Leverkusen, its runner-up as well as Stuttgart, the 20th day of the Bundesliga offered us a duel between Cologne and Frankfurt this Saturday. In great difficulty and having not won for six games now, Cologne was obliged to react against a Frankfurt team which remained on a positive dynamic of four games without defeat at kick-off. Freshly poached from PSG and Angers this winter, Hugo Ekitike and Jean-Mattéo Bahoya witnessed from the sidelines a fairly dull first period where the two teams neutralized each other despite a slight domination by Frankfurt, at least in content.
Bundesliga live standings
|
#
|
Team
|
Pts
|
J
|
DIF
|
G
|
NOT
|
D
|
BP
|
B.C.
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
6 |
|
31 |
20 |
6 |
8 |
7 |
5 |
30 |
24 |
|
16 |
|
15 |
20 |
-20 |
3 |
6 |
11 |
14 |
34 |
In the second half, the match changed in the space of 3 minutes. Niels Nkounkou sent off (65th), Cologne exploited their numerical superiority to perfection by scoring on a set piece through Faride Alidou (1-0, 66th), scorer against his former team. A deserved opening score given the start of the second half by Cologne, determined to shake up the hierarchy. Then, Jan Thielmann came to seal the victory for his team after a lightning counter-attack (2-0, 80th). Coming into play in the last quarter of an hour, the French recruits were not able to reverse the trend, Frankfurt finishing the match at 9 after the exclusion of Tuta for a second warning (82nd). As a result of the standings, Frankfurt misses the opportunity to come back to within three units of the top 4. Opposite, Cologne stops the bleeding but remains two points behind the first non-relegation team, Union Berlin.
