Greuther Fürth halt Cologne progress with spirited draw
Greuther Fürth earned a hard-fought 1-1 draw at home to European hopefuls Cologne on Saturday as Sebastian Griesbeck's first Bundesliga goal cancelled out Florian Kainz's opener.
Greuther Fürth 1-1 Cologne
Goals: 0-1 Kainz 53' (assist: Hector), 1-1 Griesbeck 69' (assist: Itter)
The hosts made a fine start as the Cloverleaves looked to keep their survival hopes alive for another weekend and could have taken a fifth-minute lead were it not for some excellent Cologne defending. Branimir Hrgota was sprung through on goal by Jeremy Dudziak's clever ball over the top, but Luca Kilian recovered to make a superb last-ditch tackle that denied Greuther's skipper the opener. It seemed to kick the Billy Goats into gear and Andreas Linde had to be on his toes to tip Anthony Modeste's fierce header over the bar, before Salih Özcan rattled the crossbar from the resulting corner with an audacious back-heeled volley. Linde then had to be at his best to get across to Kainz's free-kick that looked bound for the top-corner until the Swedish stopper intervened and Fürth held firm to ensure the sides remained level at the break.
It took Cologne just eight minutes of the second half to break the Fürth resistance, though. Kainz took up the ball on the left flank before cutting inside Marco Meyerhöfer and whipping a cross into a dangerous channel that Linde couldn't get out to as the ball safely travelled into the far corner. Stefan Leitl's side were far from beaten, though, and they were level with just over 20 minutes to play. Griesbeck was the man with the goal, meeting Luca Itter's pin-point corner and planting his header beyond Marvin Schwäbe. There would be no winner at either end of the pitch, leaving Cologne on the fringes of the European places and Greuther still rooted to the bottom the table.
Match stats
- Fürth extended their unbeaten run at the Sportpark Ronhof | Thomas Sommer to six games (W3, D3).
- Home team forward Jamie Leweling turned 21 on Saturday.
- Griesbeck, who scored an own goal in each of his side's defeats to Bayern Munich this season, scored at the right end for the first time in his Bundesliga career.
- Kainz scored his third goal of the season and first since grabbing a double against Hertha Berlin on Matchday 1.
- Jonas Hector made his 300th appearance in a Cologne shirt.
- Cologne now haven't lost away to Greuther since May 2003.
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Line-ups
Fürth: Linde - Meyerhöfer, Griesbeck, Viergever, Itter - Seguin, Christiansen, Tillman (Nielsen 57') - Dudziak - Leweling (Pululu 86'), Hrgota (c)
Unused subs: Schaffran, Asta, Bauer, Willems, Raschl, Green, Abiama
Out: Funk (knee), Jung (knee), Kehr (knee), Ngankam (knee)
Coach: Stefan Leitl
Cologne: Schwäbe - Schmitz, Kilian, Hübers, Hector (c) - Skhiri, Özcan (Ljubicic 64') - Thielmann (Schindler 75'), Uth (Duda 84'), Kainz (Schaub 75') - Modeste (Andersson 84')
Unused subs: T. Horn, Ehizibue, Chabot, Lemperle
Out: J. Horn (ill)
Coach: Steffen Baumgart
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