Stalemate with Frankfurt

In the third match day of the season, 1. FC Köln played out a 0-0 draw with Eintracht Frankfurt. In front of 49,200 at the 'RheinEnergieStadion', FC had a numerical superiority on the pitch following Patrick Ochs' red card in the 54th minute but the home side were unable to take advantage and the game ended in a goalless draw.

Nova and Pedro return

The FC fans were delighted to see Milivoje Novakovic and Pedro Geromel back in the starting eleven, at the expense of Kevin McKenna and Kevin Pezzoni, who started in the 1-3 defeat to Wolfsburg last weekend.

The game got off to lively start with both sides creating early chances. With just two minutes on the clock, Lukas Podolski squared a pass across the face of the goal which Novakovic couldn't connect with and at the other end Selim Teber headed just wide of the target (10').

Openings continued to present themselves at either end but neither side managed to make them count and so, at half time the score-line stood still at 0-0.

Red for Ochs

The game picked up pace after the re-start - and at times a little too much! Manice had the first sight of goal with a powerful drive from 22 meters out (51') and then just minutes later, the visitors were reduced to ten men. Frankfurt's Patrick Ochs made a wild lunge on Fabrice Ehret, which put him out of the tie, and the Eintracht man was red carded for the challenge.

With a numerical advantage on the pitch, FC put the pressure on but could not break the Frankfurt resolve. Maniche (69') and Youssef Mohamad (88') both had chances to break the dead-lock - as did Alexander Meier (91') at the other end, but in the end Eintracht could consider themselves somewhat fortunate to be taking a point back to Frankfurt.


The game at a glance:

1. FC Köln: Mondragon - Brecko (84. Schorch), Geromel, Mohamad, Wome - Petit, Maniche - Freis (78. Brosinski), Podolski, Ehret (59. Chihi) - Novakovic

Eintracht Frankdfurt: Nikolov - Ochs, Vasoski, Russ, Spycher - Chris - Meier, Teber (81. Köhler) - Caio (73. Bajramovic) - Liberopoulos (58. Franz), Amanatidis

Attendance: 49,200

Referee: Gräfe

Yellow cards: Petit, Maniche, Geromel, Mohamad / Liberopoulos, Amanatidis, Teber

Red card: Ochs (Frankfurt)