Coach Steffen Baumgart sharply criticized referee Benjamin Cortus and his team after the deserved 0: 1 (0: 1) of his 1. FC Köln against Union Berlin.

Baumgart complained to DAZN that he "no longer wanted to accept the performance of the referees because it just gets on my balls," but emphasized: "The defeat was not due to the referees.

We were inferior in every respect.”

Baumgart was particularly bothered by the very dubious penalty whistle in the tenth minute when central defender Luca Kilian got the ball on the arm from close range and from behind.

"The boy has his back to the ball, gets the ball on his upper arm.

This is bullshit, this is ridiculous.

That's not the rule," said the Cologne coach.

Kilian saw a yellow card for this action – and ended up being sent off the field after a foul game with yellow-red (81st).

Basically, Baumgart complained that players no longer pay attention to the ball in aerial duels, but "only jump into the opponent".

He has "a problem with that in the long run" because he learned it differently during his time as an active player and passed it on to his players accordingly: "But maybe I should include that in my training that you can just jump into the man without consequence .”

Despite all the anger at the referee – Baumgart had kicked the gang angrily after the final whistle – the 50-year-old praised the Berliners enthusiastically.

"We didn't have a trick and deserved to lose the game," said Baumgart: "In the first half, Union was the best team I've seen here in a long time.

They are much more advanced than us.”

It was also difficult for Baumgart to concentrate on this game.

Beforehand, he had said that after the riots before the Conference League game in Nice on Thursday (1-1), "it was not possible to go back to business as usual".

In contrast to his players, who were still in the cabin, the coach had followed the incidents at close range because he was locked in the stands.

The emotional state was "okay again," Baumgart said before the game at DAZN.

Nevertheless, they are "pictures that you will not forget".

In terms of sport, the FC coach on the sidelines was back to 180 in the hectic and eventful initial phase. When Hübers deflected a shot from Becker into his own net, which was untenable for Schwäbe, he was stunned at first.

When Kilian got a header against the upper arm with his back to the shooter Robin Knoche and referee Benjamin Cortus whistled for a penalty, he was really upset.

And when the Swabian, who had been outstanding in the past few weeks, held against Siebatcheu, who had returned to the team after a muscle injury, Baumgart cheered, gesticulating wildly in the direction of fourth official Thomas Gorniak.

Then he explained why.