1. FC Köln – Steffen Baumgart annoyed by the referee: “It gets on my balls”

Steffen Baumgart criticized the performance of referee Benjamin Cortus in the heated final phase. “The fact that the fouled player still gets a yellow card, even though the other player commits the foul and also provokes the formation of a pack, that gets on my nerves,” said the 1. FC Köln coach after the 1-1 (0-1) im Home game against FSV Mainz 05.

Baumgart was referring to a scene in added time when his protégé Jan Thielmann and Dominik Kohr clashed after a foul by the Mainzer. Cortus showed both the yellow card, but Kohr was only warned for the foul and not like Thielmann for the subsequent pack formation.

“In my opinion, the rating is not the right one,” said Baumgart, who complained loudly on the sidelines: “I really deserved the yellow card for that.”

Kohr went into the duel with his leg stretched out, thus preventing a good counterattack opportunity for the Cologne team. “Lucky because he didn’t hit him properly,” commented 05 sporting director Martin Schmidt on the action: “If he hits him, it can end badly. After that, more was made of it than it had to be.”

Baumgart also agreed: “Today the referee has nothing to do with the outcome of the game and the performance of my team,” said the 51-year-old: “Nevertheless, it wasn’t that exciting of him and something like that bothers me.”