From 50 minutes, FC Köln, in front of a full house of 20,000 fans, try to manage the game. Then on 80 minutes: Centre-forward Bubi Becks suddenly decides to shake off his marker Hennes Weisweiler and hammer the ball into the back of the net. The previously quiet Black and Red supporters turn the Stadtpark into a madhouse.
They have just recovered from the fortunate equaliser as Becks again races down the touchline, outwits an FC Köln defender and plays the ball to the unmarked Karl-Heinz Spikofski who slots it into the far corner. The Bayer team score two goals in three minutes after not having much luck at all in the previous 80.
Both the fans and the team of ‘FC Sülz-Klettenberg’ (Kölnische Rundschau) head home unhappy. The words of a Bayer 04 fan reflect what many of the 17,000 Werkself supporters feel: "Wow, what an incredible show!"
Tranquillo Barnetta was born in St. Gallen in Switzerland on 22 May 1985. Quillo, as he was called in the football world, has Italian roots. His great-grandfather emigrated from Italy to the east of Switzerland. Quillo was interested in football early on and he played for the St. Gallen club FC Rotmonten from the age of six. He joined his favourite club FC St. Gallen at the age of 11. There he became a youth international. He won the European Championships with his teammates in the Switzerland U17 team in 2002. The youngsters from Switzerland beat France 4-2 on penalties in the final to become U17 European champions.
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Since the establishment of the Bundesliga on 28 July 1962 for the 1963/64 season, there have been five Regional Leagues: North, Berlin, West, South-west and South. The champions of those five leagues qualified directly for promotion play-offs that were played in two groups of four teams. That included the two second-placed teams in the West and South-west Regional Leagues. The two runners-up from the North and the South played a qualifier for the eighth place in the promotion games.
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In this video you can watch impressive and important goals in the history of Bayer 04 in the month of May. It is not always about the beauty of the goals but also about remembering special games and players.
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There were high summer temperatures in Leverkusen on 25 May 1985. Matchday 32 brings FC Köln to the Ulrich Haberland Stadium with only 13,000 spectators at the derby. That is primarily due to the Werkself with Bayer 04 rarely impressing in that season and they are eleventh in the table before the game just three points ahead of sixteenth, the play-off spot. But with the two points for a win rule back then – two points were awarded for a win – and with the significantly better goal difference, the Werkself need every point to get out of trouble.
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It was all or nothing on the final matchday in the Verbandsliga in the 1974/75 season. Only now would it be decided who were champions and thereby participate in the promotion games to the Bundesliga 2 North. The earlier rivals Viktoria Köln, SC Jülich 10 and Bonner SC have fallen by the wayside.
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