1. FC Köln remains the team of the hour in the relegation battle of the Bundesliga. The team of coach Markus Gisdol also won against SC Freiburg 4: 0 (1: 0) on match day 20 and celebrated the fifth win from the past six games. As the 14th in the table, FC increased the gap to the relegation zone and even made the connection to midfield.
Defender Sebastiaan Bornauw (29.), Jhon Cordoba (55.), Kingsley Ehizibue (90. + 1) with his first Bundesliga goal and youngster Ismail Jakobs (90. + 3) scored for the Cologne team and thus ensured their fourth home win one after the other – the club last did such a series in its own stadium nine years ago.
Freiburg is still quite safe in eighth place, but suffered their second defeat in the new year a week after the 0: 2 against Paderborn and now shows exactly the “negative tendency” that coach Christian Streich had warned of before the game.
Paderborn takes over the red lantern again
VfL Wolfsburg ended their negative run with a work win and shot Bundesliga underdog SC Paderborn back to the bottom of the table. The team of coach Oliver Glasner, which was beaten three times, won 20th matchday 4: 2 (2: 1) and improved with 27 points to ninth place in the table. Paderborn, who would have climbed onto a non-relegation zone for the first time since the first leg in August, took over the red lantern from Fortuna Düsseldorf with 15 points.
Captain Robin Knoche (27th), Daniel Ginczek (40th / 60th), who strongly represented goal scorer Wout Weghorst, and Maximilian Arnold (76th) scored in the expected fight-oriented game for the guests – and stifled a possible one Discussion about Glasner in the bud. Paderborn had taken the lead through Ben Zolinski (22nd), left-back Gerrit Holtmann weakened his team with a red card for an attack (33rd). Sebastian Vasiliadis (72nd) brought the SCP back into the game in the meantime.
Before the game, Paderborn coach Steffen Baumgart and the question of whether he would pick up his fourth warning and be the first coach in Bundesliga history to receive a yellow card were in focus. The former Wolfsburg player Baumgart tigered as usual in his short-sleeved shirt through his coaching zone, gave loud commands and discussed impulsively with the officials, but in the opinion of the referees did not go overboard.
