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Frequent flyers from Bayern Munich scored their next win against 1. FC Köln in energy saving mode and thus topped the Bundesliga standings for the time being.
The record champions won 2-1 (2-0) in Cologne, despite a mediocre performance and without forgiven Robert Lewandowski and Leon Goretzka. Thomas Müller (13th, penalty in hand) and Serge Gnabry (45th + 1) scored in the first half and secured their seventh successive success in all competitions. FC, who was shortened late by Dominick Drexler (83rd), have gone 16 league games without a win.
“We should have made a point today, and we could have. Two unfortunate situations prevented it,” Cologne coach Markus Gisdol said after the match. Hansi Flick expressed himself cautiously: “Cologne did well today, we did worse. I am satisfied with the result, not so much with the game.”
Lewandowski and Goretzka are not on the squad
Flick had started the press before the game. Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting was in Lewandowski’s long-term goalscorer starting lineup, and Flick made changes to the other positions as well. For example, the national player Goretzka was not in the team, the head of defense David Alaba initially sat on the bench. None of this should serve as an excuse, Flick said. “You can play football well even with tired legs.”
At first, surprisingly, it was rather the Cologne team that did that. FC made the game against Bayern somehow uninvolved, had half chances and two corner kicks, and then gave the big favorite the advantage: on one of Bayern’s few approaches, a header from Gnabry jumped into the hand of Marius Wolf and Müller converted the penalty without a doubt.
Ruthless Bayern: one chance, two goals
FC coach Markus Gisdol had spoken beforehand about the “greatest task in world football”, but the deficit did not make it easy. And yet the underdog stayed in the game and defended intensely. Bayern almost never finished, and then made it 2-0 with the second real shot on goal. Gnabry completed a solo effort in which, for once, he hardly bothered.
Only after that did the game seem to be expected for a while. Bayern pressed, had a good chance through Gnabry (50th), but continued to perform rarely. When Drexler on the other side deflected an unsustainable shot from Jan Thielmann in the goal shortly before the end, the tension rose again. But it wasn’t enough for Cologne to earn a point.
FC Bayern will now play next Tuesday (November 3, 2020) in the Champions League at RB Salzburg and in the Bundesliga on Saturday (November 7, 2020) in Borussia Dortmund’s main game. 1. FC Köln will travel to SV Werder Bremen for a league match on Friday.
Those: sportschau.de
