With fighting spirit and passion, 1. FC Kaiserslautern caused the next depressing defeat for 1. FC Köln.

The team in sixth place in the second division won the traditional duel in the DFB Cup 3:2 (1:0), further exacerbating the FC crisis.

Richmond Tachie (19th), Kenny Prince Redondo (47th) and Marlon Ritter (65th) scored for the Palatinate side. By contrast, Cologne’s misery continues, having only won one game in the league and suffering a 6-0 thrashing at RB Leipzig on Saturday.

The late goals from Florian Kainz (71′) and Mark Uth (81′) did nothing to change that, especially as Cologne finished the game with ten players: captain Kainz saw red in the 84th minute for rough play. Five minutes earlier, Eric Martel, who had already been substituted, had been shown a yellow card for unsporting behavior.

“It was a very hot evening. It was unnecessarily tight at the end. We’re happy to have progressed,” said FCK managing director Thomas Hengen on the birthday of club legend Fritz Walter, who would have turned 103 on Tuesday.

In front of 49,327 spectators at the sold-out Betzenberg, Lauter defender Boris Tomiak fired the first “warning shot” towards Cologne’s goal in the 4th minute. Timo Hübers created even more danger at the other end with a header following a corner (5th minute).

After that, as expected, it was all about the fight. There was no discernible difference in class and the hosts even had more of the play. The lead for the Red Devils through Tachie, whose shot was deflected unstoppably by Hübers for FC goalkeeper Marvin Schwäbe, was not undeserved.

Cologne were only briefly shocked and forced Lauter into a defensive stance midway through the first half. However, FC were unable to create any real goalscoring opportunities. The visitors were too static and their insecurity was palpable.

Redondo shocked Cologne right at the start of the second half. As with the first goal, the outstanding Ritter did the groundwork. Shortly afterwards, the Rhinelanders were unlucky when Linton Maina hit the crossbar (50). Baumgart made a personnel change in the 57th minute, bringing on Uth for the weak Ljubicic.

Four minutes later, Luca Waldschmidt missed a great opportunity to equalize. After that, Lauter shook. An FC goal was in the air, but instead Ritter crowned his performance with a free-kick goal. Kainz brought tension back into the game. Waldschmidt had the next goal for the visitors on his feet (75′), which Uth then scored with his head to set up a tense final few minutes.