“It’s thrown a spanner in the works”

The 05ers haven’t lost any of their last five away games, but they’ve also not won any of these games. That was also the case away at 1. FC Köln on Sunday evening. The 0-0 draw wasn’t enough for either side in the relegation battle at the end of the game. The 05ers had the game completely under control, especially in the first half, and could have – and even should have – taken the lead. However, FSV’s efficiency in front of the opposition goal remains, as has been the case in the last few weeks, their biggest shortcoming as they once again failed to take their chances at the RheinEnergie-Stadion.

The 05ers can take courage from their good performance, another strong defensive showing and Jonathan Burkardt’s first start of the season ahead of the last two games of the year against Heidenheim (Saturday, 16.12., 15:30 CET) and Borussia Dortmund (Tuesday, 19.12., 20:30 CET).

The 05ers’ reaction from Cologne

Sporting director Martin Schmidt: “We played really well in the first half, during which we needed to take the lead. For instance, Jonny had a big chance. It was an even game in the second half. The longer the game went on, the more you could see that both teams were afraid of losing. We’ve got to take the good things with us here. We avoided defeat for the fifth consecutive away game, the team is stable and we’re not conceding many goals. We also did well today. These are good signs to continue working. The challenge during the next week of training clearly remains making the most of our opportunities. The final pass is still missing from time to time in the penalty area. It was a stable performance and a good game, but unfortunately we didn’t get enough points.”

Jonathan Burkardt: “I only found out shortly before the game that I’d be starting. With my chance, my first touch was good and I just hit it because I was so close to goal. Maybe it would’ve been better if I had tried to pick out a corner. It’s a shame that Köln got such a good block in. It would have been very nice if I had scored today. With the other situation, I had a feeling that I was probably slightly offside. It felt good, but I could already feel my calves in the second half. It’s good to get the minutes for me personally, but I’m still not quite at 100% yet.”

Phillipp Mwene: “Our chance conversion has thrown a little bit of a spanner in the works in recent weeks. We’re actually playing well and had enough opportunities to score one or two goals in the first half. We didn’t manage to kill Köln off during this good phase of the game. If we scored a goal then, they probably wouldn’t have come back into things so strongly in the second half with their fans behind them. We were lacking a bit of energy towards the end of the game because we had invested so much up until that point. Nevertheless, it’s still disappointing. We’re getting enough chances, but something is always missing - precision or our play in the final third. We need to keep working on that and do better. We really wanted to win here and that’s how we approached the game.”

Tom Krauß: “We needed to score in the first half. It’s mainly been efficiency that’s been missing in the last three games. We were actually the better team in the last three weeks, but the points tally doesn’t show you that. That’s exactly our problem – we’re not picking up enough points. Of course a point is good so that Köln also don’t get away from us. However, we need to pick up points and that’s now our goal against Heidenheim. Three points were there for the taking today, but we didn’t secure them. It’s a real shame.”