Bayer 04 won 2-0 at 1. FC Koln on Bundesliga matchday 24 with a convincing display on Sunday. Jeremie Frimpong (38) and Alejandro Grimaldo (73) provided the goals in the derby after Koln’s Jan Thielmann had been sent off in the 13th minute.
The derby success extends the Werkself’s unbeaten run in all competitions to 34 games. Supported by 5,000 Leverkusen fans in the sold-out away section, the Werkself were alert and dominant from the off. After just four minutes, some good combination play on the right side ended with Jonas Hofmann, whose low effort narrowly missed the target. The ball was almost exclusively in the possession of the visitors, while Koln – starting from the halfway line – focused mainly on robust defending.
In the 13th minute, Jan Thielmann went in too hard on Granit Xhaka, and after reviewing the incident on the monitor, referee Tobias Stieler showed a red card to the Köln forward. The home side retreated further back after that as Bayer 04 continued to dominate proceedings and created some promising situations, but couldn’t yet find the killer final ball.
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Alonso’s men kept going and increased the pressure. Just after Florian Wirtz (37′) went close, Alejandro Grimaldo delivered a cross into the penalty area from the left, where Schick neatly flicked it on for Frimpong, who slotted in the opening goal from close range. Koln strung together a dangerous counter in added time but Faride Alidou headed wide, leaving the score at 1-0 at the break.
After the restart, the hosts showed themselves to be unfazed. Their best chance fell in the 51st minute, when Sargis Adamyan’s volley from Rasmus Carstensen’s right-wing cross hit the post. Despite being a man down, the Billy Goats were more active than in the first half, but that didn’t unsettle the Werkself who remained calm and concentrated.
Leverkusen’s best opportunity of the second half presented itself to Grimaldo in the 73rd minute: substitute Adli cut the ball back from the left byline to the onrushing Spaniard, who pulled the trigger without hesitation – Koln defender Jeff Chabot deflected the ball decisively into the net to put Bayer 04 2-0 up. There was more good news from a Black-and-Red point of view in the 83rd minute when Exequiel Palacios came on for Xhaka having recovered from a thigh injury. The contest petered out after that as it ended in a 2-0 derby victory for Bayer 04.