Berlin: Cologne’s Peter Stoeger admits they may need a miracle at Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich on Friday, with the Bavarian giants scoring 16 goals without reply in recent league games.
Bayern have not conceded a goal in any of their last three league matches, their 8-0 hammering of Hamburg and last Saturday’s 6-0 pounding of Paderborn leaving Pep Guardiola’s side eight points clear.
With second-placed Wolfsburg at resurgent Werder Bremen on Sunday, with both sides unbeaten in their first five games of 2015, Bayern could well extend their lead unless mid-table Cologne pull off a shock.
That will involve Stoeger’s side stopping Bayern’s star-studded attack, including fleet-footed Dutch winger Arjen Robben, who is the Bundesliga’s top scorer with 16 goals in 18 matches.
“But every couple of years there is a miracle,” Stoeger told Cologne-based newspaper Express. “We’ve already see a few different attempts [to beat Bayern] which didn’t work.
“They take every chance they get and if that works too against us, it’s hard to survive.
“Our task is to make sure the game is no fun for them. It’ll take a lot of effort and [Cologne goalkeeper Timo] Horn will need to be in the top form of the last few weeks.”
The stats are actually in Cologne’s favour.
They are the second best away team in the league behind Bayern with five wins from 11 games on the road and, of their last six games in Munich, they have lost only the last, when they were beaten 3-0 at the Allianz Arena in December 2011.
