Thanks to a brace from Steffen Tigges, 1. FC Köln ended a dismal run and celebrated their first home win against FC Augsburg in eleven years. The striker excelled at 3: 2 (0: 1) and rewarded Cologne on Sunday for a brilliant second half against an uncomfortable FCA.
Tigges (47th, 81st) and Denis Huseinbasic (61st) also put an end to the first result crisis under coach Steffen Baumgart with their goals: Most recently, Cologne had suffered three defeats in a row across all competitions. Goals from Florian Niederlechner (14′) and Daniel Caligiuri (69′) weren’t enough for Augsburg, and FCA are now three points behind Cologne in midfield.
Initially, despite all efforts, it was noticeable that the best scorers of the season were missing. Florian Kainz took a break because of his yellow-red card from the derby at Borussia Mönchengladbach (2: 5), Dejan Ljubicic is out with a knee injury until the end of the year. Without the two Austrians, Cologne often got bogged down in duels and didn’t play as briskly as Baumgart would have liked.
The visitors, who were missing Maximilian Bauer and Jeffrey Gouweleeuw, who were placed in central defence, started very efficiently. Niederlechner took a long pass from the Augsburg half well, let Luca Kilian run into the void and scored. A bitter streak continued for the Cologne team: Most recently, they scored 1-0 against Schalke 04 on the first day of the Bundesliga match.
1. FC Köln after a weak start on the pusher
A little later the ball was in the FC goal again, but Augsburg’s Mergim Berisha (20′) was offside when he headed the ball, seconds later Linton Maina (21′) missed the first big chance to equalize against Tomas Koubek. The conspicuous Maina initiated a pressure phase in Cologne: Ruben Vargas cleared a shot from Tigges (33rd) just before the FCA goal line.
The equalizer came immediately after the break: After winning the ball, Maina served Tigges, who effortlessly scored his second goal of the season. And the people of Cologne didn’t have enough. With high pressure, they repeatedly forced ball wins and pushed for the lead.
Maina in particular caused danger with his pace, and Huseinbasic, who the Cologne team had brought from Kickers Offenbach from the regional league, also improved. He gave FC the lead out of the fray, but Caligiuri equalized in one of Augsburg’s few good attacks, which Tigges countered.