Coach Steffen Baumgart has warned against setbacks in view of the personnel misery at 1. FC Köln. After the 1: 1 (1: 1) against 1899 Hoffenheim, Baumgart assumes another failure – Florian Dietz had to leave the field injured again just ten minutes after his substitution.
“It could well be that he’s number ten,” Baumgart said, referring to nine players who weren’t available to him against Hoffenheim. “I’m assuming that Florian is the next one who’s missing something. We hope it’s not that bad,” the Cologne coach continued.
Despite the many failures and only a good 54 hours after the 1-0 win on Friday in the Conference League at 1. FC Slovacko from the Czech Republic, his team showed a lot of energy and impressed against Hoffenheim, above all with their running and fighting spirit. “I don’t know exactly where the power reserves came from,” said defender Timo Hübers. “We said to ourselves: now more than ever. If everything goes against us, we’ll show people what’s going on here.”
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Baumgart praised his team for the high intensity, but fears slumps in the coming weeks. “Such an energy performance is always possible. In the long run it won’t work,” said Baumgart, who was already fully challenged again on Thursday against OGC Nice in the conference. Then the last group game is about spending the winter in the European Cup. “Who knows what’s going to happen here in Müngersdorf. People are hot on it. They’re burning for it,” said Hübers. “Everything is set for a nice final.”
It is still unclear whether Jonas Hector and Ellyes Skhiri, who were injured against Hoffenheim, will be able to play again. “We hope that they will be back,” said Baumgart, who fears in view of the exertion of the past few days and the many failures: “I’m sure that will still lag behind.”
