Fortuna Cologne, a club many fans in Germany probably remember mainly as the life's work of entrepreneur Hans Jean Loering, had already ruined a huge Dortmund chance once before by thrashing BVB 5:0 in the 1983 DFB Cup semifinal. And now? We were lucky even to still have this chance in the playoff.\n\nCalling our season disastrous would still be polite.
Under Pal Csernai and Reinhard Saftig we had taken just 28 points under the old two-point rule, the worst BVB return since the relegation season of 1971/72. Only a 2:0 against Werder a year earlier had saved us from this very playoff.