Elvis flies the flag for Cologne as Rhine derby win caps another week of chaos | Andy Brassell

Win at Gladbach followed a botched appointment, a shock cup exit and a player upsetting fans – a regular seven days, then

There was only one way to celebrate. As they began to bask in a surprise derby victory at Borussia-Park, the plan of Cologne’s players quickly clicked into gear. The players in red scampered to the north-west corner of the ground where the away support would usually be penned in, and Salih Özcan uprooted the corner flag before popping a shirt on it and waving it in the air above his jubilant teammates.

The ribbing wasn’t lost on Borussia Mönchengladbach’s players. This has been Marcus Thuram’s victory routine since he arrived from France, normally flying his flag in front of the fans in the ground’s Südtribune. It goes on the road, too. When Gladbach and Cologne last faced each other in the first fixture at the start of October, Thuram flew his makeshift flag for the third time in a row against their regional rivals, with Stefan Lainer’s shirt flapping in the breeze in front of the empty away section. With just 300 supporters allowed into the Rhein-Energie Stadion that day as a last-minute token gesture following limited safety approval, you could hear the individual insults yelled at the French forward by fed-up Effzeh fans.