Mith their backs to the wall, VfL Bochum has solved its week-long goal blockade and left the bottom of the table in the Bundesliga. The team coached by Thomas Letsch won 2-0 (1-0) at 1. FC Köln on Friday evening, it was the first win after four defeats without a goal of their own.
Kevin Stöger (9th) was the man for the turnaround, his badly shaky penalty kick found its way into the Cologne goal and freed Bochum. Ersan Masovic (76th) later increased after a free-kick variant that actually failed.
Only for the second time in the 31st attempt did VfL win a Bundesliga guest game in Cologne, jumping ahead of the other games of the day in the extremely tight basement to 14th place. Cologne is 12th in the table. Although they are still eight points ahead of the relegation zone, they have to look further down after just one win in the last eight games.
Bochum’s coach Letsch had already announced a trend-setting game during the week, he said they wanted to “press the reset button” – but the starting conditions were not ideal. The team bus was stuck in a heavy traffic jam around the stadium in Müngersdorf, VfL arrived with a significant delay and only had about half an hour to warm up. And at least the start of the game seemed to be expected: after just 30 seconds, Cologne’s Ellyes Skhiri completed a dangerous shot – but Manuel Riemann, who had recently slipped up in the 0:2 against Schalke, held.
In the following minutes it was also a difficult evening for VfL against the powerful Cologne team, but then Timo Hübers fouled the fast Christopher Antwi-Adjei on the edge of the penalty area. Stöger’s penalty slipped under FC goalkeeper Marvin Schwäbe.
conscientious defense
With this first goal in weeks, Bochum gained security, now won many tight situations, looked for counterattack opportunities – and found them. Takuma Asano finished dangerously twice (13th/31st). The guests tended to be more dangerous than Cologne, which had brought their own problematic series with them: FC had not scored in five of the previous six games.
The second half of the game, which was still fast and good at the beginning, was much more confused. Bochum defended conscientiously and in a structured manner, Cologne also repeatedly allowed themselves misunderstandings on the offensive, and there were no real chances to score for a long time. Stöger’s actually unsuccessful free-kick trick put Masovic in position in the final phase, he scored from the crowd.