Under the floodlights, Cologne and Wolfsburg, two rivals in the battle to avoid relegation, face each other. One goal decides the game.

1. FC Cologne secured an important victory against VfL Wolfsburg. Under the floodlights, coach Lukas Kwasniok’s team narrowly defeated the Lower Saxony side 1-0 (1-0) and improved their points tally to 23 in the middle of the Bundesliga table. Wolfsburg, under Daniel Bauer, remain on 19 points.
In front of 50,000 spectators in a sold-out Cologne stadium, Linton Maina (29th minute) scored the only goal at the start of the 20th match day.
Wolfsburg without top scorer Amoura, FC with El Mala on the bench

Surprisingly, Wolfsburg’s top scorer Mohammed Amoura was missing from the squad – for disciplinary reasons, as the club announced before kick-off. “The team, the ‘we’, comes before everything else, and Mohammed didn’t stick to that 100% this week,” Bauer told Sky, referring to internal matters. Captain Maximilian Arnold returned after serving a yellow card suspension. FC’s rising star Said El Mala started on the bench again.

While the visiting fans set off fireworks in the stands shortly before kickoff, Wolfsburg started strongly on the pitch and initially had a lot of possession.
After a brief period of caution, Cologne also found their way into the game. VfL goalkeeper Kamil Grabara prevented his team from falling behind in the 19th minute with a strong reflex save when Ragnar Ache had a free header from close range.
Maina scores the opening goal for superior Cologne

Ten minutes later, Maina rewarded the now dominant home side with a deserved opening goal, which lit up the south stand with red flares. After a pass from Tom Krauß, the 26-year-old fired an slightly deflected low shot from around 20 meters into the right corner. FC continued to press for the 2-0 lead, but lacked the necessary precision in several well-played situations.
On the other side, Patrick Wimmer made a rare appearance for the otherwise largely harmless visitors with a shot over the goal after a one-two with Christian Eriksen (37′). The defense, which has been very vulnerable this season with more than 40 goals conceded, had a lot to do, while very little was happening up front. This meant that FC went into the break with a lead for the first time in almost three months.

Wolfsburg more aggressive after the break

VfL responded with a double substitution—Kento Shiogai and Adam Daghim came on for Lovro Majer and Vinicius Souza—and immediately started to play more aggressively in attack. A cross from Wimmer was cleared spectacularly in the air by FC keeper Marvin Schwäbe (49′).

Maina had a chance to counterattack for Cologne, but his shot from distance narrowly missed the goal (69′). However, VfL came closer and closer to equalizing during this phase. Sebastian Sebulonsen blocked a shot from Adam Daghim at the last moment (73′). Kwasniok reacted to the change in the game and brought on El Mala and Jan Thiemann 15 minutes before the end to add some pace. Wolfsburg pushed and pressed, but ultimately without success.