Home debut was successful, excluded exclamation marks: The 1. FC Köln presents itself in an impressive early form when he returned to the Bundesliga. The Lukas Kwasniok 4: 1 (1-0) team won against SC Freiburg and gave his trainer a successful premiere in front of a home audience. 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), 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.
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.
When Thielmann scored the next goal from the back a little later, Kwasniok promptly shoulder his co-trainer Frank Kaspari on the sidelines. European chants and “The 1st FC Köln is back” echoed from the ranks.
