Daniel Farke ultimately could not find the words as he attempted to explain why his charges had slumped to a 3-2 defeat in their top-of-the-table clash with Viktoria Köln. "It's a tough one to take and feels very unfair," said the "frustrated and dissatisfied" BVB II coach on Saturday afternoon.

image

The 40-year-old's disappointment was entirely understandable. Not only had his team spurned several chances to put the result beyond any doubt before the interval, but they had also fallen victim to a slapstick error from the usually so reliable shot-stopper Hendrik Bonmann. It was this curious incident that handed Köln the victory, with Lars Dietz playing a harmless backpass only for Bonmann to misjudge his kick and the ball to bobble over the goal-line. "I'm not trying to excuse what happened but the ball bounced up horribly," said the unlucky goalkeeper apologetically. Even Viktoria's coach Marco Antwerpen had some words of consolation: "It's a real tough one for Hendrik to concede a goal like that from a bad bounce. It was bad luck for defender Lars Dietz too: though not at all to blame, his backpass went down as an own goal...

It had all started so promisingly in front of the 5,529 spectators – among them CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke – at the Rote Erde Stadion. After just eight minutes the young Black and Yellows had broken the deadlock after Lars Dietz had headed home a Massih Wassey corner. The hosts were disciplined in defence, while repeatedly threatening at the other end with highly dangerous counter-attacks as they carved out chance after chance to put the game beyond their visitors.

Best chances squandered

image

"The score at the interval was an absolute scandal. We missed four clear-cut chances to score," Farke said as he bemoaned BVB's finishing. An unmarked Hamadi Al Ghaddioui headed over the crossbar from a Burak Camoglu corner (15), captain Christoph Zimmermann was denied by Köln custodian Philipp Kühn from close range, then Dietz and Al Ghaddioui missed from promising positions. At the other end BVB were focused and committed in defence, preventing most of Köln's attacks from getting near their box.

But that all changed after the break. Viktoria increased their counter-pressing, winning a lot of the second balls and troubling the Black and Yellow rearguard on a more frequent basis. Daniel Farke picked out "unfathomable edginess" and "numerous misplaced passes" as the reasons why the men from the cathedral city gained a greater foothold in the game and levelled the scores through Felix Backszat following a corner in the 50th minute. Borussia did re-establish their lead (Al Ghaddioui from a Wassey cross), but the visitors were not to be denied. The excellent Mike Wunderlich took advantage of carelessness in the home defence to play in Marcel Gottschling to restore parity once again, then came Bonmann's moment to forget as the Black and Yellows' promotion ambitions suffered a severe setback.

Daniel Farke's mood was downcast: "We need to accept the result, but it won't be much fun to go to training on Sunday. I have never seen us perform that poorly on the pitch."
Wilfried Wittke