2. Bundesliga - 19. Matchday

1. FC Köln secured a hard-fought three points against SV Elversberg on Saturday afternoon at the RheinEnergieSTADION. Dejan Ljubicic’s curling effort proved to be the difference as FC secured their first win of 2025.

Team news

Gerhard Struber made two changes to the side that started against Hamburg last weekend. Joël Schmied and Florian Kainz replaced Denis Huseinbasic and Luca Waldschmidt.

Horst Steffen opted for three alterations to the Elversberg team that took to the field in the 5:2 defeat to Magdeburg last time out. Lukas Pinckert, Semih Sahin and Tom Zimmerschied replaced Florian Le Joncour, Frederik Schmahl and Lukas Schnellbacher.

Level at the break

FC started the game well and had the first few flurries into the Elversberg half. Dejan Ljubicic fired over the bar from 16 yards, while Damion Downs drilled a shot straight at Nicolas Kristof when one-on-one. Elversberg responded and FC required two brilliant pieces of defending from Eric Martel and Jusuf Gazibegovic to keep the scores level.

The remainder of the first-half saw little in the way of opportunities at either end. The only openings came from half-cleared set-pieces, with Florian Kainz and Gazibegovic firing narrowly wide from outside the area.

Ljubicic wins it late on

Gerhard Struber’s side almost made the perfect start to the second-half, as Eric Martel headed just past the far post. Then followed a period of Elversberg pressure, as Fisnik Asllani’s goal was disallowed through offside. Lukas Petkov smacked the post and Maurice Neubauer’s low effort was well kept out by Marvin Schwäbe.

FC thought they had taken the lead in the 66^th minute after some superb work from Linton Maina, who kept the ball in play on the by-line before curling past Kristof. However, after a lengthy VAR check, Tom Bauer pulled play back for a goal and chalked off the apparent opener.

With both sides now with a goal disallowed apiece, it was increasingly looking like “first goal wins” in Müngersdorf. That would be the case in the 82^nd minute. Maina was involved again, coming in from the left to tee up Dejan Ljubicic. The Austrian international took aim from the edge of the area, curling home from 18 yards to finally break the deadlock.

That is how the game stayed, too, as Struber’s side returned to the top of the table ahead of the remainder of the Matchday 19 fixtures. FC are next in action on Saturday, 1^st February against Eintracht Braunschweig. Kick-off at the Eintracht-Stadion is at 13:00 CET.

Line-ups

1. FC Köln (3-3-2-2): Schwäbe – Hübers, Schmied, Heintz – Gazibegovic (Thielmann 59’), Martel, Pacarada – Ljubicic, Kainz (Lemperle 76’) – Maina, Downs (Tigges 90+3’).

SV Elversberg (4-2-3-1): Kristof – Baum, Rohr, Pinckert, Neubauer – Sickinger, Sahin – Petkov, Zimmerschied (Gerezgiher 75‘), Damar – Asllani (Schnellbacher 80‘).

Goals: 1:0, Ljubicic 82‘.

Referee: Tom Bauer (Mainz).

Booked: Asllani (30’), Gazibegovic (56’), Neubauer (64’), Gerezgiher (83’), Pinckert (90+5’).

Sent-off: Baum (90+3’).

Attendance: 49,800.