The 1. FC Saarbrücken won 2-1 against Viktoria Cologne on Saturday on the 2nd day of the 3rd division. The hosts quickly took the lead and then focused primarily on the defensive – but shortly before the end the sheet almost turned again.
Pure sunshine and a good mood in the Ludwigsparkstadion – optimal setting for 1. FC Saarbrücken to end the first home game in the new season with three points. With Viktoria Köln there was no easy opponent. The guests came with a 2-0 win against Schweinfurt in the back of the first match day. The FCS, on the other hand, was lucky with a last-minute point win in Cottbus last week.
The first standard brings early leadership
However, the hosts were hardly impressed by this. In the first few minutes they moved to the opposing goal with pressure. That paid off: The first standard brought the hosts an early tour.
Tim Civeja flanked a free kick in the sixteen on Kai Brünker. He headed the ball into the far corner, Cologne’s goalkeeper Dudu could not hold it – 1-0 in the seventh minute.
Brünker hits the double pack
While Viktoria Cologne increased the pace to achieve a balance, they did not have enough gaps to get really dangerous. At the same time, however, there was no longer any major chance for the Saarbrückener after the fast first goal.
The 2-0 for the FCS in the 39th minute therefore came out of nowhere. Again the chance arose from a free kick, this time from his own half. Calogero Rizzuto acted at lightning speed and sent a long pass forward, Brünker put on a sprint, left the Cologne defense behind and transformed.
Efficiency instead of dominance seemed to be the keyword of the Saarbrücker for this first half.
Cologne with Connecting goal shortly before the end
This continued in the second half. Cologne pushed further forward, Saarbrücken closed at the back and prevented the Rhinelander from finding opportunities for the connection goal. At the same time, the Saarbrücken offensive did not appear particularly dominant, the focus was on the defensive.
In the 67th minute, Saarbrücken’s keeper Philipp Menzel was challenged again. After a corner on the goal, Cologne’s striker David Otto headed the ball, who crashed into Dominic Baumann and from there towards the goal. But Menzel was able to secure the ball.
Until shortly before the end, it looked as if the game had long since been decided, so the Cologne team did not give up until the end. In the third minute of stoppage time, David Otto finally scored the goal. With force he promoted the ball directly from the free kick position over the Saarbrücken Wall against the crossbar and just into the goal. Cologne seemed to want to get everything out again for the last few seconds and followed up directly: again with full force against the crossbar, but the ball went over it. That could almost have been compensated.
But shortly afterwards the time had expired, the FCS kept the lead and secured the 2-1 win against Viktoria Cologne.
First round in the cup against Magdeburg
The first round in the DFB Cup will be coming up next week. On Friday, 1st FC Saarbrücken meets second division club 1. FC Magdeburg. The kick -off is at 6 p.m. in the Ludwigspark.
In the league, the next opponent of VfL Osnabrück is waiting on August 23 at 2 p.m.
The SR Info messages on the radio also reported on this topic on 09.08.2025.
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