1. FC Köln : Hertha BSC Berlin

In Cologne we stayed at the hotel "Mülheimer Hof". Before I go into detail here, just a word of advice: If you come to Cologne - DO NOT stay there. The price is exaggeratedly high, at breakfast you have to look for a place between dirty dishes, if you arrive at 8 a.m. for breakfast there is nothing left anyway and the cleanliness is also rather modest. So: NO to the Mühlheimer Hof...

... but now to the game. Since we always wanted to leave our hotel as soon as possible anyway, we made our way to the stadium early. On the way, we wanted to find a pub to try Kölsch beer. Our way led us to the Marienbild (www.marienbild.de). Since Kölsch is served until you put the lid on the glass (and sometimes a glass is produced prematurely), this increases consumption enormously. But due to the small quantity of 0.2 l, this naturally also has an impact on the staff. When a rush of people was expected at closing time, 3 additional waiters came, one of whom was only responsible for cleaning the glasses - and that's what he did. An hour at a time - you need good arms...

After having a "beer lid full" of Kölsch intus, the two of us made our way to the Rhein-Energie-Stadion. There they were immediately unmasked as Austrians because they ordered their food in a "Sackerl" and not in a "Tüte". So you still have to practise a bit for undercover operations... ;-)

Then we took our seats - this time first row without feet. Which would have been great if the weather had cooperated. But it was pouring with rain, which meant that our seats fell into the category of "lousy". But what the hell - you have to go through it.

Hertha was still playing for the championship at this point (and didn't know that they would be relegated a year later) and went accordingly. Shortly before the break, they were able to convert their field superiority into a goal. Afterwards, there was a penalty alert in the Berlin penalty area - but the referee didn't give it, which led to some turmoil on the Cologne bench. The referee had to listen to a lot as he went into the dressing rooms.

In the second half, the same picture. Hertha made the game and went up to 2:0. The goal for Cologne shortly before the end of the game was only cosmetic.