1. FC Köln missed a preliminary decision in the fight to stay in the Bundesliga: 1. FC Union Berlin scored their first point under coach Marie-Louise Eta at 2-2 after being 2-0 down, but then missed even more.
Marius Bülter gave FC the lead in the 33rd minute on Saturday afternoon (May 2nd, 2026), and Said El Mala made it 2-0 in the 61st minute. Tom Rothe shortened the score in the 73rd minute, and Livan Burcu equalized in the 89th minute.
Union coach Marie-Louise Eta, who scored her first point after two defeats, praised her team: “I’m really very proud of the team for how they came back today and kept believing.” The Cologne coach René Wagner struggled with having given away the victory: “The boys gave it their all and then conceded a dream goal in the end.“
Union presses, but is too harmless
In the first half hour, the fans at the Alte Försterei saw one-way football almost continuously. The goal-scoring ratio for the “Iron” was 6:1, while the Cologne team acted slowly, lacking ideas and far too passively.
The Unioners’ problem lay in the final third. Aljoscha Kemlein aimed just over the goal in the 4th minute from the edge of the penalty area, and in the 23rd minute he missed what was clearly the best chance of the game up to that point: his sensitive shot from the left hit the right outside post, where Marvin Schwäbe would have been powerless in the Cologne goal.
Cologne’s Bülter hits the middle of Berlin’s pressure phase
As the pressure grew more and more, in the middle of Berlin’s best phase, Bülter scored a dream to give Cologne the lead. On the left flank, Kristoffer Lund played a through ball to Said El Mala, who was, however, meters offside. El Mala initially made a move to pick up the ball, but Jakub Kaminski called him to order from behind just in time.
So the youngster stayed away from the ball and raised both hands to signal his passivity to the referees. Kaminski took over the play equipment, set Luca Waldschmidt in the spotlight, who set up for Bülter – the left winger finished perfectly into the left corner from 22 meters.
Offside complaints from Union go nowhere
Union complained vehemently that El Mala had actively intervened in the game simply by running deep. Due to the lack of Berlin defenders close to the action who could have tied up Cologne, this argument was of course without substance, even if Union captain Rani Khedira simply stopped running in the center. That’s how the VAR saw it, the hit stood.
At the break, Marie-Louise Eta did not provide any impetus from the substitutes’ bench; it was only in the 58th minute that the Union coach, who had still had no points, decided to make three changes: Livan Burcu, Christopher Trimmel and Andrej Ilic, but the Union problem with the final consequence in the end remained a constant topic of this game.
Cologne’s El Mala scores after Lund’s assist, Rothe shortens
Already in the 50th minute, Kaminski could have punished the hosts’ harmlessness after a cross from El Mala, but his direct shot went just wide of the goal. After an hour, El Mala took over himself after the strong Lund had served him precisely – that looked like a preliminary decision.
But the old and somewhat lost Berlin standard strength brought the tension back again. After 72 minutes of Union’s seven shots up to that point all failing to reach the Cologne goal, the first one was in: Rothe rose into the air after a corner and pushed the header perfectly into the far corner.
Union presses, Cologne forgives the decision
Afterwards, Union increased the pressure again, but often acted with harmless half-court crosses. In the 84th minute, Linton Maina made it 3-1 for the guests, after a counterattack he aimed just over the crossbar. The missed match point took revenge – shortly before the end of regular time, Burcu equalized with a perfectly timed shot.
The “Iron” even fought for the winning goal well into stoppage time, but in the end it wasn’t enough. Oliver Burke had the best chance in the end, but his shot was blocked by Eric Martel.
Union in Mainz, Cologne against Heidenheim
Union will be guests at Mainz 05 on Sunday evening (7.30 p.m.). Cologne welcomes 1. FC Heidenheim on Sunday evening (5:30 p.m.).
