A few days longer than hoped, Friedhelm Funkel is under high tension - the 1. FC Köln coach will remain the great hope of a suffering football community until Saturday. But that didn't stop him from taking a day's rest on Sunday after the dramatic 1-0 win against Schalke 04. “I had to switch off after the nerve-wracking game,” he reported at the beginning of the week. After many match days on a direct relegation zone, FC had moved to 16th place practically at the last moment of the season with a late goal by defender Sebastiaan Bornauw and thus in the relegation (first leg on Wednesday at 6.30 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the football Bundesliga and at Dazn) against Holstein Kiel a good chance of staying in the Bundesliga.Goalkeeper Timo Horn spoke of a “roller coaster of emotions”, which will possibly end in a feeling of boundless joy.
Funkels team is carried by a feeling of confidence. “We felt very, very comfortable on Saturday after the game,” reported the coach, “we had to work hard and we were rewarded for it.” It is different with Holstein: After two defeats at the end of the season, Kiel are back on the second dropped to third place. "The last few weeks our legs have hardly supported us," said Ole Werner after the painful 2: 3 defeat against Darmstadt 98 on Sunday. With a win, Kiel would have been promoted, but in the course of the game "a lot happened in their heads", explained the coach.
The second division club therefore starts out of a dark emotional hole in the important duel, which is why the Bundesliga club has an even greater advantage than it already has. Whereby Funkel rejects such thoughts. It is part of everyday life in sport "that you just miss a goal," he said. Rather, it is to be expected that there will be a "now-especially-mood" among the people of Kiel. But possibly this warning was just an attempt to curb Cologne's dreaded arrogance.
Because at FC things are otherwise going exactly according to plan. The team has stabilized under sparkle, overtook Werder Bremen with ten points from six games in order to now save a difficult season full of self-confidence. In addition, they avoided meeting the Fürthers, who, according to the unanimous opinion of experts, are the strongest football team in the second division. Sports director Horst Heldt can only marvel at the precision with which the old master from the coaching bench acts: "A big compliment, how he carried out the team, that's really impressive," said Heldt about Funkel.
Now the most recently suspended key players, Ismail Jakobs and Ellyes Skhiri, are also coming back, the only thing that is unclear is whether Sebastian Andersson's aching knee will be able to bear loads again in time. But Funkel brought a substitute striker to life in Bornauw. The 22-year-old Belgian scored six goals last season but struggled this season with his form and back pain caused by a benign tumor. During the necessary operation he had an allergic reaction to the anesthesia, had to be put into an artificial coma and then said: "20 years ago I would have died 90 percent."
On Saturday, he kept FC alive with his first goal of the season after Funkel ordered him to the top of the attack in the closing stages. “You have to go to war, that's what we did,” said Bornauw, and they won the battle of nerves. While the Kielers suffered a trauma the next day. His team had to "give space to this disappointment today," said coach Werner. "You can only adjust to new things if you have processed what is behind you in a certain way." In contrast to Funkel, Werner will not be able to switch off because he is urgently needed as a mental emergency provider.