Head coach Xabi Alonso made three changes to the starting line-up for the meeting in the cathedral city. Josip Stanisic started on the right of the back three and Piero Hincapie on the left, in place of Odilon Kossounou and Edmond Tapsoba. In attack, Patrik Schick was preferred to Amine Adli.
Supported by 5,000 Leverkusen fans in the sold-out away section, the Werkself were alert and dominant from the off. After just four minutes, some good combination play on the right side ended with Jonas Hofmann, whose low effort narrowly missed the target. The ball was almost exclusively in the possession of the visitors, while Köln - starting from the halfway line - focused mainly on robust defending. In the 13th minute, Jan Thielmann went in too hard on Granit Xhaka, and after reviewing the incident on the monitor, referee Tobias Stieler showed a red card to the Köln forward. The home side retreated further back after that as Bayer 04 continued to dominate proceedings and created some promising situations, but couldn't yet find the killer final ball.
Alonso's men kept going and increased the pressure. Just after Florian Wirtz (37') went close, Alejandro Grimaldo delivered a cross into the penalty area from the left, where Schick neatly flicked it on for Frimpong, who slotted in the opening goal from close range. Köln strung together a dangerous counter in added time but Faride Alidou headed wide, leaving the score at 1-0 at the break.
After the restart, the hosts showed themselves to be unfazed. Their best chance fell in the 51st minute, when Sargis Adamyan's volley from Rasmus Carstensen's right-wing cross hit the post. Despite being a man down, the Billy Goats were more active than in the first half, but that didn't unsettle the Werkself who remained calm and concentrated. Leverkusen's best opportunity of the second half presented itself to Grimaldo in the 73rd minute: substitute Adli cut the ball back from the left byline to the onrushing Spaniard, who pulled the trigger without hesitation - Köln defender Jeff Chabot deflected the ball decisively into the net to put Bayer 04 2-0 up. There was more good news from a Black-and-Red point of view in the 83rd minute, when Exequiel Palacios came on for Xhaka having recovered from a thigh injury. The contest petered out after that as it ended in a 2-0 derby victory for Bayer 04.
Two consecutive weeks of midweek fixtures begin for Leverkusen with the trip to Baku for the UEFA Europa League round of 16 first leg against Qarabag. Kick-off at the Tofiq Bahramov Stadium is this Thursday, 7 March, at 18:45 CET. That's followed by a home game against VfL Wolfsburg on Bundesliga Matchday 25 on Sunday 10 March (kick-off 19:30 CET).
Match stats:
1. FC Köln: Schwäbe – Carstensen, Hübers, Chabot, Finkgräfe – Martel (Schmitz 83'), Ljubicic – Alidou (Tigges 83'), Thielmann, Maina (Huseinbasic 83') – Adamyan (Diehl 65', Pacarada 69')
Bayer 04: Hradecky – Stanisic, Tah, Hincapie (Taposba 79') – Frimpong (Tella 46'), Xhaka (Palacios 83'), Andrich, Grimaldo – Hofmann (Adli 65'), Wirtz – Schick (Iglesias 65')
Goals: 1-0 Frimpong (38'), 2-0 Grimaldo (73')
Yellow cards: Ljubicic, Martel / Frimpong, Stanisic
Red cards: Thielmann
Referee: Tobias Stieler (Hamburg)
Attendance: 50,000 (sellout) at the RheinEnergieSTADION
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