After his bitter European Cup debut as a coach, Steffen Baumgart practiced remarkable self-criticism. “These are situations in which the coach might have to learn,” said the 1. FC Köln coach after the 2-1 win in the first leg of the Conference League playoff against Fehérvár FC: “Perhaps he doesn’t always have the experience that he reacts correctly to every situation.”
Baumgart did not mean the yellow card for complaining after his 199th game as a professional coach. But his tactical measure after Jeff Chabot’s red card in the 20th minute when the score was 1-0. Instead of substituting, Baumgart switched, ordered full-back Kristian Pedersen in and corrected his hitherto successful tactical move of pulling captain Jonas Hector into central midfield. Suddenly the assignment and the walking routes were no longer correct.
“We lost order for ten minutes and suddenly you’re chasing a deficit,” said Baumgart, looking at the goals from Budu Zivzivadze (32nd) and the native of Berlin Palkó Dardái (40th), son of ex-Hertha- Coach Pal Dardai. Baumgart made a change during the break and brought in central defender Luca Kilian for Pedersen.
“I warmed up straight away. But of course it is at the discretion of the coach what he does,” he replied when asked whether he had expected a substitution immediately after the dismissal. After the break – and the change – FC were back on track, but it wasn’t enough to equalize.
So there’s a lot at stake in the second leg next Thursday in Hungary. Financially, FC urgently needs the additional income of around ten million to get into the group phase. And for the euphoria in the area, the playoff would be a real blow to the neck after failing in the first round of the cup.
But with a mixture of defiance and conviction, the FC pros showed optimism after the defeat. “We’ll try to go there in the second leg and rip their ass off,” said Kilian: “And I’m confident that we’ll be able to do that eleven against eleven.”
Ex-national player Hector also believes in that. “The results were completely different,” said the captain on the tenth anniversary of his professional debut for FC: “We were even superior with ten men. There’s definitely something in it for next week.” And goalkeeper Marvin Schwäbe struggled with the fact that the balls bounced off the post and once off the crossbar into the net. “They won’t catch them so well next week. And when we’re back on the field with eleven men, we’ll decide that for ourselves.”
