For almost half an hour, the 22,000 spectators experienced a great Rhenish derby between Bayer Leverkusen and 1. FC Köln with great scenes in front of both goals, until after an eternity of pandemics on the Rhine, the dark side of a well-filled stadium showed up again.

Florian Wirtz, perhaps the most exciting player in the Bundesliga at the moment, who was set to play an important role in the national team this year, was curled up on the pitch.

He covered his face with his arms, everyone could see that the 19-year-old midfielder had injured his knee badly after a duel with Luca Kilian, and a long, long absence is imminent.

But this wonderful and now possibly crying player, who had been trained in the FC youth academy, was wildly insulted and mocked by the Cologne fans.

Wirtz had to be carried off the pitch, the more empathetic part of the audience was shocked and a shadow hung over the game, which became more and more confused and finally ended with a somewhat fortunate 1-0 away win for Cologne.

Especially fans of tough duels at the limits of the rules could enjoy this game, and there were still interesting goal scenes.

Leverkusen was a bit better in terms of football, but Cologne managed to turn the game into a hard-fought battle.

For your own benefit.

Structured plays became increasingly rare.

Emotions ran high all the time, and after Cologne's substitute Kingsley Schindler used a great assist from Dejan Ljubicic, who also came on as a substitute, to score the winning goal for the team from the other side of the Rhine in the 67th minute, this bitter afternoon finally took shape for Bayer Leverkusen.

Especially since the striker Sardar Amzoun, who was signed by Zenit St. Petersburg in the winter, missed two wonderful chances to equalize quite miserably.

The Leverkusen team recently announced that they are in a trend-setting phase in which the course is being set for the near and medium-term future.

This derby of the Werkself is framed by the Europa League duels against Atalanta Bergamo, this Thursday they have to make up for a 2:3 defeat in the first leg in order to reach the quarter-finals of the competition.

And in the Bundesliga table, clubs like Leipzig, Hoffenheim and Freiburg are putting pressure on them from behind, qualifying for the coming Champions League season – the main goal of the season – will still require a lot of good performances.

"I believe that these important games are a very important step in learning, in order to move this team forward," said coach Gerardo Seoane before kick-off.

Now it is a matter of “getting to grips with the situation, with the pressure”.

But Seoane didn't know anything about Florian Wirtz's injury, which will significantly reduce his chances in all competitions unless some surprising miracle of healing occurs.