Leverkusen were the dominant side from the start and fired off the first warning shot inside four minutes when Patrik Schick laid off to Jonas Hofmann, who flashed a shot just wide. The hosts were then reduced to 10 men after only 13 minutes when Jan Thielmann caught Granit Xhaka on his Achilles, being shown a red card on review by referee Tobias Stieler. Köln then sat back and were finally breached after 38 minutes when Alejandro Grimaldo crossed from the left to Schick, who flicked it on for Jeremie Frimpong to tap in the opener. The Cologne side had an immediate chance to level after the restart, but Sargis Adamyan struck the post with his volley. At the other end, Alonso’s men struggled to break down the compact Köln defence. They finally added a second with around a quarter of an hour to go when substitute Amine Adli found Grimaldo with a cutback, and the Spaniard fired beyond Marvin Schwäbe. Read more about the game in our report here.
Alonso said after the game: “I’m happy with the result. It’s not easy to win here. The atmosphere was amazing. It wasn’t easy for us to find space. It was then a different game after the red card. The goal was very important.” The coach continued: “We wanted to play with less emotion and more control in the second half. We were more patient finding our moments, and that’s how we scored the second goal. The game wasn’t spectacular, but we did our job.”
Xhaka was also pleased after the final whistle: “A derby is always special, obviously also for us. But being cool comes through our experience. We have young players who’ve done great things and players with lots of experience. The mix is very good.” Jonathan Tah added: “We wanted to remain focused after half-time and not get nervous. We wanted to make the opponent tired, make them run. We did that.”
The headline in the Rheinische Post was “Leverkusen win without shine in Cologne”. The Süddeutsche Zeitung summarised: “Even though Köln were a man down for a long time, league leaders Leverkusen didn’t have it easy”. The Frankfurt Allgemeine Zeitung had a similar perspective: “No walk in the park for the Werkself”. kicker highlighted Xhaka as man of the match: “A total of 120 touches and a pass completion of 94 percent – Granit Xhaka was the focal point for the entire game as the commanding leader and genius for Leverkusen.”
It was Alonso’s 50th Bundesliga game in charge of Bayer 04. His record so far is 33 wins, 10 draws and seven defeats. The Spaniard has therefore picked up 109 points – only Hansi Flick (125) and Pep Guardiola (132) have ever earned more from their first 50 matches in the league. Exequiel Palacios also made his comeback in the 83rd minute. Goalscorer Frimpong picked up his fifth yellow card and will be suspended for next weekend’s game against Wolfsburg.
The Werkself have scored in each of their last 17 competitive away games, which equals the club record at professional level from 2016. Leverkusen had 17 attempts on goal to Köln’s six and have now scored in 23 of their 24 league fixtures in 2023/24 – the most of any Bundesliga team.
In addition, Bayer 04 had 73 percent possession and a pass completion of 92 percent (Köln 74 percent). The hosts came out narrowly ahead for challenges won with 53 percent. Nevertheless, the Werkself kept their 12th clean sheet in 24 league matches – the most of any team.
The Werkself return to training on Tuesday as they prepare for the journey to Azerbaijan for Thursday’s UEFA Europa League round of 16 first leg against Qarabag (18:45 CET). The team then return home for Sunday’s Bundesliga encounter at the BayArena against Wolfsburg (19:30).
It was another incredibly close call in the end: The second showdown in the 2026/27 VBL Club Championship saw the #B04eSports team once again narrowly miss out on a place in the top 16 of the preliminary round – and with it, a spot in the in-person knockout stage. It was a bitter blow: Marc and Sean Landwehr again fell just short, despite being level on points with their rivals. As was the case last month, their weaker record across the twelve individual matches in the six preliminary round fixtures proved decisive.
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“They stuck with us over the past few weeks when things weren’t going so well,” said captain Edmond Tapsoba, thanking the fans for their support after the 2–1 win in Cologne and dedicating the derby victory to them. Throughout the 90 minutes, the Werkself had looked unfazed and in command, inflicting the first home defeat of the season on FC Köln. It was the sixth consecutive win against the Cologne team for Bayer 04 – head coach Carles Martínez, on the other hand, was facing the team from the neighbouring city for the first time and “now really knows what this derby win means”. The Werkself derby review.
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Following the 2–1 derby victory away at FC Köln on Bundesliga matchday 9, Edmond Tapsoba, Malik Tillman and Aleix Garcia spoke to Werkself TV...
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Werkself TV shows the highlights of Bayer 04's 2-1 derby win at 1. FC Köln Matchday 9 of the 2026/27 Bundesliga season...
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There were celebrations among those in black and red at the RheinEnergieSTADION. On Matchday 9 of the 2026/27 Bundesliga season, the Werkself beat 1. FC Köln 2-0 and registered their sixth successive win in the derby. Aleix Garcia put Bayer 04 in front after just seven minutes with a direct free kick. Leverkusen played with discipline and energy after that and didn't allow some fierce challenges to unsettle them. Patrik Schick made it 2-0 in the 86th minute, and Said El Mala's goal in stoppage time for Köln proved nothing more than consolation. Jonas Hofmann crowned the derby win with his 100th appearance for the club.
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