1. FC Köln wins in Kaiserslautern and is winter king before Christmas. First place after the first half of the season – that was not expected two months ago.
1. FC Köln is putting one last exclamation mark before Christmas. The 1-0 win at 1. FC Kaiserslautern moves the billy goats to first place in the 2nd Bundesliga. Also because FC scored 19 out of 21 points in the last seven games and won away without conceding a goal for the fourth time in a row – this has never been achieved in the club’s history.
What a story after FC was still deep in crisis at the end of October after two bitter defeats. Since then, FC has remained unbeaten in all nine competitive games, including the DFB Cup. In Germany, the league leaders are called “autumn champions” after the first half of the season – but Austrian is spoken at FC. With coach Gerhard Struber, the winning goal scorer Dejan Ljubicic and veteran Florian Kainz – and in Austria this title is called “Winter King”.
As winter kings, the billy goats go into the second half of the season as favorites for promotion. On Sunday, FC was able to prove for the first time that they can withstand this pressure. As second in the table, Cologne was one of the hottest teams in the league for the first time this season – and won against a team from the top half of the table for the first time this season. So there are good reasons in Cologne not only to find presents under the Christmas tree, but also the confidence for a successful year in 2025. The players and those responsible also thought so after the game at FCK.
Florian Kainz: “It wasn’t the best game to watch, but we’re very happy that we’re going into the break now as the Winter King. That gives us a really good feeling and the belief that it’s working, the way we’re playing and the team is sticking together . We have experience and quality on the pitch, we can make good transitions. Everyone is pushing hard and trying to take the lead. Of course we have to play better in transition situations and be more clever. But we should We enjoy having such a run The way we played the free kick was more or less freestyle. Linton had great depth and crossed well. Of course, I’m looking forward to the days off was just going on, it would have been nice to continue.”
Timo Hübers: “Winter King sounds good. If you take a look in the rearview mirror, two months ago that might not have been entirely to be expected – there was a thunderstorm over Cologne, now the sun is shining a little again. At least for two weeks. Then it’s off to the training camp Hopefully the sun will shine. We have to stick with it and continue exactly where we left off before the winter break. We scored a goal from a set piece today and defended the set piece ourselves really well. We didn’t let that happen Kaiserslautern the whole We’ve also made progress in terms of pushing ourselves even harder and celebrating the little things, which is the only way to win such closely contested games . Now you can say: ‘luck’ and ‘coincidence’ – but I think the developments of the last few weeks prove us right.”
Marvin Schwäbe: “The motivation we show to defend everything is top-notch at the moment. We like to win 1-0 every time. When we see where we were ten weeks ago… Now you can see where we can go. Now we have everything in our own hands. We’ve proven what we’re capable of. The autumn championship is nice, but we won’t rest on our laurels. We’ll see how we can work on everything and see what we can do better But of course it’s nice to do that overwinter.”
Christian Keller: “Before Christmas there is a point to pause for a moment. We are very happy that we managed to get another three points here in a difficult away game. But we all know how football works and that we have to keep winning in the new year That’s what the focus is on. This game now gives us a nice message for Christmas and a good feeling for the new year when it starts again on January 3rd. Then we have two weeks to face the next very, very ambitious opponent to beat.”
Gerhard Struber: “It was my first time here at Betzenberg. The atmosphere is second to none. It’s always brilliant here, but also here. A big thank you to our fans, it’s not a given that so many come along again and again. It was very competitive and a game that had too many ping-pong moments. But we always managed to get some really good transition moments. We had good chances to score “There was nothing top-class about it. It was once again a very stable performance. We’ve been proving for a long time that we’re efficient. Overall, it’s a deserved win based on the chances, even if you look at the xG value.”