Cologne native misses: El Mala applies for the Frank Mill Memorial Prize | EUROtoday

The scene may have brought about the stadium to blow up: Cologne’s winger Said El Mala had already ready every part for the celebration within the duel with the little-appreciated neighbors Bayer Leverkusen, he had outplayed keeper Janis Blaswich and ran in the direction of the empty objective from the left wing. And then this occurred: Cologne’s prodigy solely hit the left publish (35′).

Instead of get together, there was horror within the Rhine derby. Because on the time of the missed shot it was nonetheless 0-0. In the tip it was 1:2 (0:1) from the attitude of the hosts, who are actually nonetheless caught within the relegation battle. The match winner was striker Patrick Schick, who scored each Leverkusen targets.

The nice liberation transfer by Cologne, who had been clearly higher for a very long time, was supposed to achieve success – El Mala and the unhealthy luck within the first half meant that the Rhinelanders now stay caught at 31 factors.

“Every grandma knows this scene”

The scene was strikingly harking back to one other legendary shot in opposition to the publish. The then Dortmund striker Frank Mill had outplayed keeper Jean-Marie Pfaff within the away sport at FC Bayern Munich on August 9, 1986, after which ran in the direction of the empty objective solely to hit the suitable publish.

The former nationwide striker, who died in 2025, mentioned of the missed shot: “Every grandma knows this scene.”

El Mala initially mentioned nothing on Saturday in Cologne. His teammate Eric Martel spoke for this. “We had a lot of chances and didn’t reward ourselves,” mentioned the defender at DAZN: “We have to blame ourselves for that. Today the ball just didn’t want to go in.” Coach Rene Wagner mentioned: “We were the better team, I’m proud of that. Nobody misses on purpose.”

In the tip, Leverkusen additionally needed to admit that the Cologne crew deserved extra that day. “I’m very happy about the three points, but not about the performance,” mentioned coach Kasper Hjulmand. Attacker Schick mentioned: “It wasn’t ideal, but it’s a very important victory in the fight for the Champions League.”