Cologne trip brings three points | OneFootball

After falling behind early, Eintracht scored four in a row in what turned out to be a 4-3 away win at 1. FC Köln courtesy of goals from Theate (39’), Dahoud (45’+6) and Burkardt (59’, 63’).

Götze and Collins in

Head coach Dino Toppmöller made two changes to the team which defeated Mainz at home, with Mario Götze and Nnamdi Collins starting in place of Ellyes Skhiri and Rasmus Kristensen. Elias Baum was also back in the matchday squad, while Jessic Ngankam was on the bench for the first time this season. Early deficit The Eagles had their first opportunity after just two minutes. Ansgar Knauff delivered a good cross from the left into the box which Jonny Burkardt could not quite connect with as he would have liked, and the chance came and went. What could have been an early lead became a deficit. Two minutes later, a long ball was met by Ragnar Ache. Michael Zetterer had raced out of his goal and Ache rounded him before teeing up Jakub Kaminski, who slotted home into the empty net. 

Turn-around before half-time In the 39th minute, Farès Chaibi sent a corner to the near post where Arthur Theate outjumped Ache to nod the ball home from close range to level the score at 1-1. Then in time added on at the end of the first half (45’+6), Marvin Schwäbe pulled off a great save from Chaibi but was powerless to stop Mahmoud Dahoud’s follow-up, and all of a sudden it was the Eagles who had their noses in front going into half-time. Burkhardt at the double Köln came out of the changing rooms the stronger, with Jan Thielmann on the end of a counter-attack, but his shot from just inside the box was straight at Zetterer, who gathered it comfortably. Burkardt then gave Toppmöller’s side the cushion that they would need to take all three points back to Frankfurt. The striker got the better of Joel Schmied to get on the end of a cross from Ritsu Doan and make it 3-1 (60’), and three minutes later, he latched onto a ball into the box from Knauff, turned Kristoffer Lund inside-out and fired home from eight metres to make it 4-1.  

Eintracht ride their luck at the end With 50,000 fans in the RheinEnergieSTADION cheering them on, the recently promoted hosts pulled a goal back through Marius Bülter in the 83rd minute. Eintracht then began to look very nervous in defence, as Said El Mala hit the post in the second minute of added time before Luca Waldschmidt halved the deficit with a header (90’+4). Toppmöller’s men managed to nurse that one-goal lead until the end and were relieved to hear the final whistle. Up to sixth The three points propel the Eagles up from seventh to sixth in the table after Matchday 11, and they have now gone five Bundesliga matches unbeaten.