Goals from Faride Alidou and Jan Thielmann helped Timo Schultz's 1. FC Köln to grab victory against an Eintracht Frankfurt side who ended the game with nine men.
Overview
Köln started the game positively with a deflected Faride Alidou pass coming into the path of Dejan Ljubicic who missed a speculative acrobatic attempt.
Jan Thielmann broke through the Eintracht Frankfurt defence around the 15th minute and saw his attempt saved by Kevin Trapp before being flagged offside.
Eintracht Frankfurt offered very little throughout the first thirty minutes and saw their first chance come through the form of a Robin Koch header sailing wide from a corner.
To finish the half, Dejan Ljubicic had two attempts with both sailing wide and not causing too much trouble for Kevin Trapp.
Eintracht Frankfurt had much of the ball in the first half, but failed to make any chances with the possession.
Farès Chaïbi offered some hope for Eintracht in the second half with a free-kick attempt from some distance which forced Marvin Schwäbe into a good save.
Following this, a clearly offside attempt was ruled out by the linesman as Farès Chaïbi failed to time his run.
As the game was looking to die down, Niels Nkounkou brought down Faride Alidou by his leg and received a second yellow card to bring Eintracht down to ten men.
Minutes after, Faride Alidou nets a close-range flick towards the goal against his former club to put 1. FC Köln one-nil up.
In the 80th minute, a neat run and pass from Dejan Ljubicic via a Köln counter attack leaves Jan Thielmann face-to-face with Kevin Trapp and this time Thielmann is able to slot the ball in the far side of the goal.
Things got worse for Eintracht Frankfurt as Tuta was deemed to have elbowed Julian Chabot and therefore received a second yellow card and brought Eintracht down to nine men.
One last chance fell for Köln in the final few minutes through Linton Maina as he looked to slot one in the bottom corner but was denied by Kevin Trapp.
Man of The Match:
Jan Thielmann
Jan Thielmann caused trouble throughout the whole game for the Eintracht Frankfurt defence. Stepping in for the injured Davie Selke, Thielmann had the daunting task of facing the Bundesliga's third-best defence. He was always lively throughout the game and provided key runs for his team mates to pick out and he scored a neat goal in the second half to top off his man of the match worthy performance.
See Below: 1. FC Köln vs. Eintracht Frankfurt result
Match Result
'19 Denis Huseinbašić 🟨
'67 Faride Alidou ⚽️
'80 Jan Thielmann ⚽️
'34 Tuta 🟨
'55 Niels Nkounkou 🟨
'66 Niels Nkounkou 🟨 🟥
'83 Tuta 🟨 🟥