The first ‘kleiner’ Rhein Derby of the season between Bayer Leverkusen and 1.FC Köln saw Köln looking to stop their slide backwards, while Leverkusen were looking to bounce back following a poor loss to Augsburg last weekend.
For all you fact fans out there (or people who may not know why this could be considered a derby), if you look at a map of the Rhein region of Germany, slightly north west of the Rhein, you find the town of Leverkusen, which is one of the stops between the Domstadt and Düsseldorf. Leverkusen’s sole purpose is to be a factory town for the Bayer drugs company.
The first 45 in this ‘derby’ was a tense affair with a derby feel as both teams defended tightly, and both had their fair share of chances. Robert Andrich had a great heading chance in the latter stage of the half, while Said El Mala’s run set up what seemed like an easy tap-in for Luca Waldschmidt, but the Köln forward would scuff his effort wide.
On the other side of the break, Malik Tillman had the perfect chance to open the scoring when the American dispossessed a Köln defender to leave him one on one with Marvin Schwäbe, but Tillman could only sky his effort.
Then, when it looked like the ball was not going to go in for either side, substitute Martin Terrier stepped up to open the scoring with a scorpion kick. Six minutes later, Robert Andrich would avenge his missed header in the first half as he headed the ball home to make it 2-0, and the second goal killed off any sort of momentum that Köln were looking to build.
A big win for Leverkusen after losing their previous two games against Borussia Dortmund and Augsburg. The win sees them maintain their place in the top four and will look to next week, where they will face a tough test against RB Leipzig to end 2025.
Köln’s slide down the table continues as they have only won one of their last eight games. Depending on the results tomorrow, Effzeh could slide down to the bottom half of the table.
Bayer Leverkusen:
Mark Flekken (5), Jarell Quansah (6), Robert Andrich (7), Edmond Tapsoba (6), Arthur (5), Ibrahim Maza (6), Aleix Garcia (7), Ernest Poku (5), Malik Tillman (5), Jonas Hofmann (5), Christian Kofane (5)
Others: Martin Terrier (6), Nathan Tella (5), Loïc Bade (5), Alejo Sarco (5), Jeanuël Belocian (-)
1.FC Köln:
Marvin Schwäbe (7), Sebastian Sebulonsen (5), Eric Martel (5), Rav van den Berg (5), Jan Thielmann (5), Tom Krauß (5), Denis Huseinbasic (5), Jakub Kaminski (6), Luca Waldschmidt (5), Said El Mala (5), Marius Bülter (4)
Others: Ragner Ache (5), Linton Maina (5), Cenk Ozkacar (5), Kristoffer Lund (5), Isak Johannesson (-)
GGFN Man of the Match: Aleix Garcia (7)
An odd game where it is hard to pick out a clear man of the match. Leverkusen had to be defensively sound in this game to see off a dangerous Köln attack, and Robert Andrich was at the heart of it (quite literally), leading the backline, especially when there have been doubts about his level in recent weeks.
While for Köln, Marvin Schwäbe also made several important saves to keep out Leverkusen, and keep the game level.
But, Aleix Garcia continues to impress. His deadball technique is underrated due to the presence of Alejandro Grimaldo in the squad, but the midfielder showed his quality today assisting Andrich’s goal. While his passing ability is one of the best in the league. Via FotMob, Garcia completed the most passes in the game (87) with a 98% completion rate, whilst also creating the most chances in the game (two). The Spaniard has smoothly replaced Granit Xhaka, and in hindsight, should of been used more often last season under Xabi Alonso.
GGFN | Jack Meenan
