Cologne defend till the end

Cologne defend till the end

Bayern Munich were held to their first goalless draw of the Bundesliga season by a defensive Cologne at the Allianz Arena.

The hosts hit the woodwork twice, but failed to break down a well-organised Cologne side.

Bayern disappointed in attack and the visitors fully deserved the point, which lifted them out of the bottom two and left their hosts eight points adrift of league leaders Bayer Leverkusen.

Bayern coach Louis van Gaal sprang a surprise by naming Franck Ribery in his starting XI despite having said yesterday he and Arjen Robben would both miss out through injury.

Robben was unable to play though, and Jose Ernesto Sosa came in for the one and only change to the side which had been held to a 0-0 draw by Juventus on Wednesday.

Lukas Podolski recovered from a calf strain to take his place in the Cologne team against his former side.

It was clear from the very beginning that Cologne had only one thing on their mind, and that was to defend a goalless draw.

Bayern dominated the possession stakes, albeit without posing a major danger in attack.

Bastian Schweinsteiger's header against the crossbar from a Ribery corner was the closest the home team came to opening the scoring.

That chance came in the 12th minute before Bayern hit the crossbar once again in the 38th minute, as this time Schweinsteiger's header struck the head of his team-mate Miroslav Klose and curled onto the top of the woodwork.

Cologne remained packed with 10 men behind the ball, leaving Podolski alone up front.

They were waiting for chances on the counter attack, yet they only produced one opening in the 37th minute when Pedro Geromel raced clear, turned inside Daniel van Buyten and placed his shot several feet wide of the far post from the edge of the penalty area.

Van Gaal introduced Mario Gomez for Ribery and Danijel Pranjic for Sosa at the start of the second half, but they were unable to provide any new ideas.

Ivica Olic was the Bayern coach's last throw of the dice midway through the second half, but as the home crowd became impatient with their team's inability to score for the third game in a row, the chances dried up and the Bavarians had to settle for a point.