Table of Contents
1. FC Köln vs. VfB Stuttgart
Three days after finally qualifying for the Conference League, 1. FC Köln will take on VfB Stuttgart in the 4th matchday of the Bundesliga. Kick-off for the match at the Rhein-Energie-Stadion is on Sunday at 15:30.
The Swabians have only good memories of their last encounter with the Effzeh. Last season, the VfB managed to stay in the league at the very last minute with a 2-1 win at home against Cologne. Wataru Endo caused complete ecstasy with his winning goal after a corner in the 92nd minute. Since then, however, Pellegrino Matterazzo’s team has gone winless in the Bundesliga. They have not managed more than two draws so far this season.
Cologne, on the other hand, are still unbeaten after the first three Bundesliga matches for the first time in six years and are going into this game with a lot of self-confidence after qualifying for the Conference League. So the signs clearly point to a home win. Our Cologne vs Stuttgart tip will tell you whether we are also convinced of this.
Cologne – Stuttgart Info
– Date & Time: 28.08.2022, 15:30 Uhr
– Venue: Cologne, RheinEnergieStadion
– Competition: Bundesliga, Matchday 6
– TV broadcast: DAZN
Cologne Form & Balance Check
With the departures of Anthony Modeste and Salih Özcan, 1. FC Köln undoubtedly lost quality in the summer. However, the first games of the new season have shown that the team is quite capable of spreading the responsibility across several shoulders in the future. Without Modeste, no Cologne player has scored more than once this Bundesliga season, yet the Effzeh already have six goals to their name and are absolutely solid in eighth place in the table with five points.
Undefeated going into Matchday 4
After the convincing 3:1 opening win against Schalke, Cologne first separated from RB Leipzig with an overall fair 2:2 draw. Last weekend in Frankfurt (1-1), Jan Thielmann secured the next point late on with a beautiful direct shot in the 82nd minute. They will be aiming for the next three points against Stuttgart on Sunday.
During the week, the Cathedral City team also secured qualification for the Conference League. After the 1:2 defeat, the Effzeh travelled to Hungary for the return match with a mortgage, but they did justice to this task and won against Fehérvár FC with 3:0.
Cologne facts & analysis
– 5 points after 3 games
– In the league last played 1:1 in Frankfurt
– Still unbeaten after 3 games for the first time in 6 years
Stuttgart Form & Balance Check
While things are going pretty smoothly for the Cologne side even without two key players, the visitors from Stuttgart are still a bit in the finding phase. After the difficult last season, which ended happily with a last-minute league finish, the start to the new season has been mediocre. The opening draw against Leipzig (1:1) was certainly a respectable success and on matchday 2 there was almost the first win after a turbulent game in Bremen, but especially the recent 0:1 defeat in Freiburg showed why it could be another difficult year for VfB.
VfB sleep through every opening phase
The offensive play is still clearly too harmless overall. The Breisgauer were able to concentrate mainly on their core business after his early lead (11.), VfB hardly knew how to find solutions against a well-organised opponent. In addition, the Swabians have slept through the opening phase in every game so far and had to chase a 0:1 deficit from the 11th minute at the latest. The error rate is still too high and as long as things don’t go well on the offensive, the Stuttgart team will face difficult times. It would certainly be advantageous if clarity could be achieved as soon as possible as to which players will tackle the mission to stay in the class with VfB and which will not.
Stuttgart facts & analysis
– 2 points after 3 games
– Last lost 0:1 in Freiburg
– Trailed 0:1 in every game until 11th minute
Predicted line-up – last update on 26 August 2022
The hosts will have to do without Mark Uth for the time being, who is out until further notice with a pubic bone injury. There are four contenders for his position with Ondrej Duda, Linton Maina, Eric Martel and Mathias Olesen, we’ll go with Olesen. In the forward line, the competition is similarly fierce. We line up Jan Thielmann and Stefan Tigges, but Sargis Adamyan and Eric Dietz are also options.
For VfB, everything could stay the same compared to the defeat against Freiburg. Only Lilian Egloff, who made a good impression after his substitution, and newcomer Luca Pfeiffer could slide into the starting eleven. The list of absentees is still long. Enzo Millot, Tiago Tomas, Wahid Faghir, Tanguy Coulibaly Jordan Meyer and Nicolas Nartey are all unavailable.
Cologne – Stuttgart direct comparison & Statistics
The long-term direct comparison is narrowly in favour of 1. FC Köln with 41 to 36 wins and 25 draws. The duels have also been very even in recent years. Of the last five duels, both teams have won two and one match ended in a draw. The balance of the last ten games is narrowly in favour of VfB, with five wins to three and two draws.
– Attention, goals are likely to be scored today: 1. FC Köln have conceded one goal in each of their last 5 matches.
– When VfB Stuttgart are 1-0 down in away games, they win 11% of matches.
– The winner of the last encounter was VfB Stuttgart.
– The comparisons between the two clubs last season: 1-0 (home to 1. FC Köln) and 2-1 (home to VfB Stuttgart).
