He could have been blamed if 1. FC Köln had not managed more than a 0:0 against Stuttgart. But then Anthony Modeste’s late hour struck.
With the eleven that had also started in the 3:2 win in Wolfsburg, FC reflected the offensive temperament of its coach Steffen Baumgart in the opening phase. However, Baumgart must have been annoyed that two of his team’s early goals were disallowed: When Modeste supposedly took the lead, Kainz, who provided the assist, had played the ball with his hand (3rd), a little later the Frenchman himself was offside before Schaub shot in (10th).
With Führich and Klimowicz instead of Kempf (bench) and Karazor (cold), the visitors from Stuttgart took a more offensive approach compared to the 0:5 against FC Bayern. But the VfB were rarely really dangerous in the first half, as they were too imprecise in their switching actions. Klimowicz missed the short corner (12th), Förster chased the ball into the upper tier (18th).
All in all, the home side had the slight advantage – and above all the better chances. The best one was missed four minutes before the break by Modeste, who was not able to push his header decisively after strong preparation by Kainz (41st).
Modeste misses a lot – and still scores
After the restart, VfB initially set the tone. The Swabians were more active, but this was not accompanied by any danger of scoring. Marmoush’s counter-attack was too narrow (51) – Stuttgart’s only chance in this phase.
Then Baumgart intervened with a triple change, which was to influence the statics of the game early on. Modeste came close three times after good advances (58th, 65th, 73rd), but there was no goal on this side either.
Matarazzo also made three changes in the final quarter of an hour, which revitalised the visitors’ counterattacking play. Nevertheless, this remained too imprecise in too many aspects, so that the chances continued to happen on the other side: Uth still headed past (83rd), but Modeste, of all people, after a great free run, headed exactly into the corner shortly before the end (88th).
Cologne, who celebrated their first Bundesliga home win against VfB since 2000, play again at Hertha BSC (3.30pm) after the short winter break on Sunday 9 January. Stuttgart, who spend the winter in 16th place, already host Fürth on Saturdays (3.30pm).
