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Wolfsburg (AP) - For 1. FC Cologne and its coach Markus Gisdol, things are getting tighter in the relegation battle of the Bundesliga.
Despite a convincing first half, the table-16 lost.
on Saturday with 0: 1 (0: 0) at the Champions League candidate VfL Wolfsburg.
The fall on a direct relegation place was spared the Cologne once again.
After the tie between the two direct rivals Mainz and Bielefeld, FC is only separated from Arminia in 17th place by the slightly better goal difference.
On the other hand, Josip Brekalo's winning goal in the 69th minute gave Wolfsburg a considerable lead over the first non-Champions League place before the difficult games against Eintracht Frankfurt, Bayern Munich, VfB Stuttgart and Borussia Dortmund.
There are now eleven points between third Wolfsburg and fifth Dortmund.
The Wolves had big problems with Cologne, especially in the first half, but they fought their way into this game.
The best evidence of this was the game-winning action by Wout Weghorst, who prepared the Brekalo goal when he fell.
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The big question after this game is what will become of FC coach Markus Gisdol.
Because managing director Horst Heldt gave the 51-year-old practically only one job guarantee for the next game before the international break.
However, the Cologne players did everything they could to strengthen the position of their coach for at least one half on Saturday.
After the convincing 2: 2 against Dortmund, the relegation candidate this time hit the next top team enormously.
In the 14th minute, captain Jonas Hector only hit the crossbar of the Wolfsburg goal.
The favorite did not come that close to a possible opening goal in the entire first half.
On the defensive, Cologne gave Wolfsburg hardly any room.
On the offensive, they took dangerous actions several times via the external positions.
The frustration that FC generated with this stubborn style of play was best seen in the emotions of Wolfsburg coach Oliver Glasner.
Much more often than usual, the Austrian appeared on the sidelines, cursing loudly.
After the half-time whistle, he stayed on his bench for a longer period of time.
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Whatever Glasner said in the cabin afterwards: It had an effect.
Because VfL played more purposefully and more forcefully in the second half and also improved significantly in its core competence, winning the ball.
Cologne hardly came out of their own half of the game.
For them, however, spoke that they still hardly allowed clear Wolfsburg chances - apart from Brekalo's winning goal.
Gisdol then switched on offensive players Sebastian Andersson, Florian Kainz and Emmanuel Dennis, of whom Kainz had not played this season and Andersson had not played in at least the past three and a half months.
And at least one of these two comebacks after long injury breaks almost paid off.
In the fifth minute of stoppage time, a cross from Kainz gave Tunisian Ellyes Skhiri a great chance to equalize.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210403-99-75120 / 2
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