Kanter victory for the promoted
Cologne’s new super striker shoots Freiburg in the table 18
31.08.2025, 9:29 p.m.
In the first home game of the Bundesliga season, 1st FC Köln impressively underlines its ambitions to relegation. A surprisingly clear success is successful against Europa League participants SC Freiburg. The decisive factor for this is an attacker who has already shone in the opening game.
The 1. FC Köln continues to present itself in an impressive early form when returning to the Bundesliga. The Lukas Kwasniok 4: 1 (1-0) team (highlights here on RTL+) won against SC Freiburg and gave his trainer a successful premiere in front of a home crowd. After the opening victory in Mainz, the promoted team defeated the next European participant and is in third place with six points from two games.
477 days after the last Bundesliga home game, Cologne delivered a strong performance in front of 50,000 fans, the Jakub Kaminski (35th), the outstanding Marius Bülter (47th), Jan Thielmann (57th) and Said El Mala (81st) crowned victory. Julian Schuster, coach of 2025, and the SCF, on the other hand, are not yet going. The Europa League participant, for whom Maximilian Eggestein (84th) only met for the connection, continues to wait for the first points and is now a bottom of the table.
Kwasniok, on the sidelines again in the FC jersey, had visibly cheered on his first competitive game as a FC coach in the sold-out Cologne stadium. “You come up the stairs here and just enjoy the moments,” he said before kick -off at DAZN. The 44-year-old can also look forward to an impressive backdrop in the DFB Cup. Cologne welcomes Bayern Munich in the 2nd round, Freiburg has to go to Fortuna Düsseldorf.
“The 1. FC Köln is back”
As with the late 1-0 opening victory in Mainz, FC initially focused on the defensive and only became more and more powerful after the initial phase. After a cross from the half field, Thielmann first missed the lead (23rd), and Kaminski did better after Bülter per Volley (35th).
Freiburg only became more active in the deficit, but was not able to develop a real danger and made life defensively difficult. Because with a copy of the lead goal, Bülter increased to 2-0 shortly after the break – he had previously hit Mainz.
When Thielmann scored the next goal again from the back area at the presentation of Bülter, Kwasniok promptly shoulder his assistant coach Frank Kaspari on the sideline. European chants and “The 1. FC Köln is back there” sounded from the ranks. El Mala then continued to heat the mood, the Freiburg honor goal almost went under in the cheers.
