Thanks to Luca Waldschmidt’s late penalty for the 1-1 final score, FC Köln still managed to grab a point in the relegation battle away at FC St. Pauli.
Before that, a curious scene had unfolded on the pitch: penalty taker Said El Mala first picked up the ball, but then handed it over to his teammate.
What initially looked as though Waldschmidt might have claimed the spot-kick for himself and the young Köln player had given in seemed to have been quite different.
Speaking to Sky after the final whistle, Waldschmidt explained that Said El Mala — actually the designated penalty taker — had already asked him in midfield during the VAR check whether he wanted to take it.
So why did El Mala still pick up the ball again in the penalty area? According to teammate Waldschmidt, quite simply: “To cause a bit of confusion.”
Whether that “smart move” actually had an effect or not, letting Luca Waldschmidt take the penalty was, from Köln’s and El Mala’s point of view, absolutely the right decision.
He converted to equalize and earned his team the point — one that, given the course of the match and the league table, Köln could ultimately live with better than the home side from Hamburg.
This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.
