A real invasion from Leverkusen was on the cards and the non-stop trams struggled to cope with the masses. At the kick off, there were 30,000 spectators at the stadium including at least 5,000 from Leverkusen. FC Köln immediately took charge and dominated possession. Frenetically driven on, the hosts created chance after chance but the Leverkusen defence around Habets and Frömmel along with goalkeeper Mutz offered brave resistance.
After the first half hour, Bayer 04 mounted the occasional attack and took a 1-0 lead on 33 minutes with a low shot from Emil 'Bubi' Becks. Shortly after that, the same player hammered the ball against the underside of the Köln crossbar – Leverkusen deservedly took a lead into half-time.
Köln came out fighting in the second half as they looked for the equaliser. However, they were brought to a juddering halt by their own defender Langen with an overhit back pass that the FC Köln goalkeeper de Munck was unable to reach.
The Bayer team defended the 2-0 lead with all they had and deservedly left the pitch as winners. The newcomers were now second in the table behind Rot-Weiß Essen.
Here are the line-ups of the two teams:
Köln: de Munck – Langen, Graf, Mebus, Schütz, Gawliczek, Becker, Alexius, Schemmerling, Röhrig, Schäfer
Bayer 04: Mutz – Habets, Frömmel, Nußbaum, Röger, Dr. Wichelhaus, Brecht, Spikofski, Becks, Flohr, Wiorek
Jacek Krzynowek was born on 15 May 1976 in Kamiensk, Poland, and grew up as a typical country boy. He spent his childhood less in structured training sessions and more on simple pitches, where he spent hours playing football with older boys. He realised early on that he had exceptional shooting power and enormous stamina. But for a long time, he didn't appreciate just how much talent he had. While others dream of a great career, professional football initially seems like a distant world to him that he only knows from television.
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Carsten ‘Calle’ Ramelow was born in Berlin on 20 March 1974. He began his football career in the youth teams at Tasmania 73, Tennis Borussia, SC Siemensstadt and, last but not least, Hertha Berlin. It was here that he reached the DFB Pokal final in 1993 with the Hertha Bubis team, the amateur team at Hertha Berlin, against his future employer Bayer 04 Leverkusen. But even he was unable to prevent the Werkself's 1-0 victory thanks to a goal from Ulf Kirsten.
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The 1995/1996 season brought some innovations. For the first time, each player was given a squad number with his name printed on the back of the jersey. For the first time, coaches were allowed to make three substitutions and for the first time, three points are awarded for a win. And for the first time, I am no longer my team's number 1. I wear it on my back, but Dirk Heinen has taken over me in goal. So at first I sat on the bench a bit offended, but in the Rückrunde I realised I also had to make my contribution to the success of a team.
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In this video you can see impressive and important goals in the history of Bayer 04 from the month of May. It's not always about the beauty of the goals, but also a reminder of special games and players.
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Bayer 04 Leverkusen, promoted to the Oberliga West, welcome VfL 99 Köln for the last game of a successful season. This time, the crowd of just 2,000 spectators saw more of a friendly than a championship match. Little fight, little goalmouth action and few moves in midfield to warm the hearts of the spectators. It takes a corner to give Bayer 04 the lead. Peter Röger is on hand with his head and nods home on 43 minutes for the half-time lead. When Karl-Heinz Spikofski increased the lead to 2-0 a quarter of an hour after the restart, the result was settled. The team from Cologne were able to reduce the deficit to 2-1 in the final minute, but in the end the spectators went home looking forward to the first season for a Bayer 04 team in Oberliga West 1.
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