Hungarian club Fehérvár FC, with German coach Michael Boris, face 1. FC Köln in the Conference League playoffs. After a comfortable 5-0 win at home in the first leg, Hungary also won at Petrocub Hincesti in Moldova.
Bundesliga club 1. FC Köln will face FC Fehérvár in the playoffs for the Conference League. The Hungarian team of German coach Michael Boris also won the second leg of the third qualifying round at FC Petrocub-Hincesti from Moldova 2-1 (2-1). A week ago, Hungary had won 5-0 (3-0) at home.
"Of course we want to get as far as possible in the Conference League," said coach Boris in an interview with RTL / ntv. "One goal was at least to reach the playoff game, which we have now achieved." The German formulated cautious goals for the duels with the Cologne team. "It always depends on the form on the day. We look at Cologne, how they play, what they plan to do. We'll try to be in the best shape on the day."
Is it an advantage for the club to be able to play the second leg in front of their own crowd? Boris is undecided: "We can talk about that after the first game." Due to the elimination of the away goals rule, it basically doesn't matter when and where the game is played. For the first leg, he hopes that his team will keep the stadium calm with their own performance. He knows what the "outstanding" scenery can do.
The Georgian Budu Zivsivadze scored twice, the striker's second goal was scored by ex-Hertha player Palko Dardai, Pal Dardai's son. Former Mainz player Kenan Kodro came on for Dardai early in the second half. In the play-offs, Cologne has a home game on August 18th, a week later (August 25th) they go to Szekesfehervar, around 60 km south-west of Budapest.
The Effzeh could use the income from the Conference League very well, financially the club is not too rosy. Should Cologne survive the play-offs, the group phase will begin for the Bundesliga club on September 8th. The team from Cologne was last represented in the 2017/18 season in the European Cup. At that time they were eliminated in the group stage of the Europa League - and were relegated to the 2nd Bundesliga at the end of the season.
