1. FC Köln rescued a late point against SV Werder Bremen on Saturday afternoon. Marco Friedl opened the scoring in the 22nd minute before Said El Mala struck in the first of five added minutes to secure a share of the spoils.
Team news
Horst Steffen named the same starting line-up that began the defeat to Leipzig last weekend.
Lukas Kwasniok made four changes to the side that started against Eintracht Frankfurt last Saturday. Joël Schmied, Kristoffer Lund, Denis Huseinbašić and Ragnar Ache were replaced by Cenk, Alessio Castro-Montes, Said El Mala and Marius Bülter.
Friedl opens the scoring
The game began slowly from an FC perspective. Jens Stage’s early opening was cut out by Cenk before the Danish international fired wide of the mark from a promising position moments later. Dominique Heintz had to be replaced in the 12th minute after going down injured. Rav van den Berg made his FC return as a result.
Before FC could really get acclimatised to the change, Bremen broke the deadlock. A Cameron Puertas effort was deflected over for a corner. The resulting delivery was half cleared but only to Stage, who whipped in a perfect delivery for captain, Marco Friedl to head home from close range.
Aside from a good opening for Said El Mala, there was little to talk about in the first period going forward. Eric Martel had a late opening after El Mala managed to push the ball to the FC midfielder but was quickly snuffed out. The dangerous Puertas had the chance to double Bremen’s lead from the resulting counter but Marvin Schwäbe saved.
Late leveller
FC started the second-half with a double change, with Tom Krauß and Kristoffer Lund replacing Alessio-Castro Montes and Ísak Jóhannesson. Kwasniok’s side started relatively well but almost found themselves two goals behind in the 55th minute before VAR chalked off Keke Topp’s goal.
That seemed to wake up FC and, from there, slowly began to get more of a foothold in the game. It wasn’t until the 87th minute where Luca Waldschmidt volleyed just wide where the visitors registered a shot of real note.
However, as all looked lost, the first of five added minutes produced an equaliser. As Bremen sat in their block, Lund managed to work the ball over to Said El Mala, who went past two Werder players before firing at goal. His effort would have been easily gathered by Mio Backhaus, though a deflection wrong-footed the ‘keeper and El Mala raced to the away end to celebrate a vital equaliser.
FC end the day in ninth and are next in action on Saturday 6th December. Lukas Kwasniok’s side take on FC St. Pauli at the RheinEnergieSTADION with kick-off at 15:30 CET.
Line-ups
SV Werder Bremen (4-2-3-1): Backhaus – Sugawara, Pieper (Stark 46’), Coulibaly, Friedl – Stage, Lynen – Puertas (Mbangula 81’), Schmid, Grüll – Topp (Boniface 70’).
1. FC Köln (3-4-2-1): Schwäbe – Sebulonsen, Heintz (van den Berg 12’), Cenk (Waldschmidt 74’) – Thielmann, Jóhannesson (Krauß 46’), Martel (Kainz 82’), Castro-Montes (Lund 46’) – Kamiński, El Mala – Bülter.
Goals: 1:0, Friedl 22’. 1:1, El Mala 90+1’.
Referee: Bastian Dankert (Rostock).
Booked: Castro-Montes (38’), Thielmann (75’), Martel (78’), Bülter (90+6’).
Sent-off: Stark (90+6’).
Attendance: 41,800 (sold-out).