Cologne yields to demotion. - In the cabin, all is quiet and still.
Without resistance, no clash, no saving grace.
This is the club's seventh demotion from the top league.
At 3:30 pm, there's still a faint glimmer of hope: FC must win, and the competition must lose. Coach Schultz before the game, confidently grim: "I'm brutally convinced."
However, by 36 minutes later, relegation almost feels like a done deal.
A double from Dinkci (16th and 22nd) and Sessa (36th) made it 0:3, a relegation brush-off.
COLOGNE GIVES UP FIGHTING RELEGATION.
It's unsurprising that the fans who'd journeyed with the team stopped rallying behind them at half time.
Schultz: "I have no explanation for this first half. We weren't present... I wouldn't've thought my team could play a first half like that."
Tigges managed to bring the score to 1:3 for FC at the 64th minute, but Beste stayed their spoiler spirit (78').
By 5:22 pm, demotion was officially confirmed.
Sports director Keller summarizes the somber dressing room mood: "It's completely quiet in there. It's a gut-wrenching pain."
But what about Heidenheim?
The relegation newbies exuded a furious finale to a triumphant season, and in eighth place, they now even hope for Europe, if Leverkusen win the cup final against Kaiserslautern.
Read also:
- Five occurrences of fives noted in Stuttgart.
- Officer halts intoxicated motorist aged 61.
- Geraerts' decision set for release next week
- Leipzig battles for top attacker Sesko.
Source: symclub.org
