Lukas Kwasniok will always be able to say that he led FC Köln in the historic 100th top-flight Rhineland derby against Borussia Mönchengladbach. He will always be able to say that his team fought as hard as the occasion demanded, overcame myriad setbacks and never deserted the cause, or him.
Yet Kwasniok will also have to acknowledge that this was the end; that even a derby as intense as this and everything his team did right in it could not exist in a bubble separately from an increasingly fraught situation in Köln’s season. The writing had felt like it was on the wall for a while and when sporting director Thomas Kessler spoke after the game, it was sprayed in neon capitals. “It was,” Kessler acknowledged after a thrilling 3-3 draw, “a rollercoaster of emotions but ultimately, we have to say that the point isn’t enough today.” As soon as Kessler conceded that final point it wasn’t a case of if but when for Kwasniok.
The news was confirmed early on Sunday evening, with Kessler having promised “to sleep on it.” He had added, however, that “we can all read the table.” The bottom line is that by the time they take the field in Frankfurt following the international break, Effzeh will have won just twice in five months. In that context, it is perhaps a surprise that they are not in the third-bottom relegation playoff place at the very least. And in the thick of a progressively congested battle to stay up, a promising start has given way to the sort of sticky scenario that the club thought they were distancing themselves from.
This breathless derby distilled it all in a way. It underlined what has been worthy of merit about Kwasniok’s team and yet leaned into the chaos that is so typical of this club and this wonderful football city of Cologne. On the brink of a crisis and with the win-or-go-home imperative clear, a member of the Wilde Horde ultras group gave the players a rousing team talk before kick-off at the side of the field. The players applauded enthusiastically and then conceded a simple opener to Effzeh academy product Jens Castrop on the back of it, 27 seconds into the game.
The pendulum swung at speed. Köln actually led before seven minutes had been played, with Saïd El Mala, the wonderkid of whom Kwasniok’s management has caused such consternation, blasted them level before Ragnar Ache nudged them in front. Yet in the 20th minute the lead was lost as their umpteenth different defence of the season failed to clear Castrop’s cross and Philipp Sander levelled. When Castrop sent a missile of a shot into the top corner of Marvin Schwäbe’s net as the hour mark approached, it looked like lights out. Still there was more, from an unlikely source. Eric Martel headed an equaliser with six minutes left from the soon-to-be-retiring Florian Kainz’s corner, only the third time Köln have scored from one this term. Any sense that this might precipitate a charge for victory was snuffed out soon after when Martel was sent off for a second booking, for a flailing arm in the face of Joe Scally.
It was everything that is gripping about Köln and the experience around the club and everything that infuriates and frustrates those inside and outside. Plus ça change, then. It was something that Kwasniok, like so many coaches here before him, could do little to change even in the medium term. It had felt as if he was fighting an uphill battle ever since banners calling for his removal appeared in the away end in the game at Heidenheim more than two months ago, in the first match of 2026. Performances have often been creditable – which is why René Wagner, Kwasniok’s erstwhile assistant, has been chosen as his immediate replacement – but results have flatlined. With teams around Köln starting to pick up points (such as Werder, winners at stricken Wolfsburg on Saturday), something had to be done.
If many fans won’t miss Kwasniok it seems some players won’t either. El Mala published a photo of himself celebrating with Ache on Instagram minutes after the announcement of the coach’s sacking. Those supporters will hope El Mala gets more licence to be himself under the new regime having often been left out by Kwasniok. Of course with Köln being Köln there is already a backup to the backup, with 72-year-old Friedhelm Funkel the emergency option to return should the interim Wagner not start picking up points pretty sharpish. This is the 12th change of coach since Peter Stöger left nine years ago, and the fifth in the last two-and-a-half years.
Stability, for now, is not even a pretence. Salvation is what it’s all about, and the rest will wait until tomorrow.
Quick Guide
Bundesliga results
Show
Augsburg 2-5 Stuttgart, Bayern Munich 4-0 Union Berlin, Borussia Dortmund 3-2 Hamburg, Heidenheim 3-3 Bayer Leverkusen, Köln 3-3 Borussia Mönchengladbach, Mainz 2-1 Eintracht Frankfurt, RB Leipzig 5-0 Hoffenheim, St Pauli 1-2 Freiburg, Wolfsburg 0-1 Werder Bremen
Talking points
Bayern’s 4-0 win over Union – a burial which could have been an avalanche – was not as notable as might have been from a Harry Kane perspective as he returned to the Bundesliga starting lineup. The England captain scored once but missed a couple of sitters (“I took what was probably my most difficult chance of the game,” he later said) on an occasion that was more about the kids. On a day when Lennart Karl celebrated his Germany callup with a goal, 16-year-old Erblin Osmani became Bayern’s second-youngest Bundesliga player ever and the seventh teenager to make a first-team debut for the club this season. With a smallish squad, Kompany’s plan to rope young legs into eventual heavy lifting is clear.
The on-field action at Borussia Dortmund in Saturday night’s Topspiel was entertaining enough, as Niko Kovac’s side recovered from a 2-0 half-time deficit to win, but there was more to come on Sunday with the long-mooted departure of sporting director and long-term BVB servant Sebastian Kehl confirmed – and immediate. The three points on Saturday put Dortmund eight points clear of Stuttgart in third so much of the anticipated summer of change at the club can start already, with the team’s final fate this season all but set in stone. An early candidate to replace Kehl is Nils-Ole Book, Elversberg’s sporting director and a developer of talent, who has helped players including Nick Woltemade and Fisnik Asllani take leaps forward in loan spells over recent times.
It was a bad weekend for Leverkusen, who lost a 2-0 and then a 3-2 lead to draw at last-placed Heidenheim, leaving them now four points adrift of the top four. Malik Tillman, who had scored the opener with a delightful sidefoot volley, called the performance and result “simply embarrassing.” On a weekend when Stuttgart steamrollered Augsburg 5-2 after racing into an early 3-0 lead to go third and Leipzig hammered Hoffenheim 5-0 to leapfrog them into the top four (two-goal Brajan Gruda was outstanding), Die Werkself looked miles off the required standard. As Kasper Hjulmand insisted his team were “ready” for the seven-game stretch which will decide their season, Bild’s Phillip Arens described the coach’s words as “sounding more like empty slogans than a concrete plan”. Words that felt pretty accurate.
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