With a passionately fought derby victory, 1. FC Köln ended its dry spell in the Bundesliga and scored their first three since the beginning of October.

Coach Steffen Baumgart's team defeated arch rivals Borussia Mönchengladbach 4-1 (0-0) and celebrated their first success after the last five games without a win.

Dejan Ljubicic (55th), Mark Uth (77th), Ondrej Duda (78th) and Sebastian Andersson (90th + 3) shot FC in the 93rd duel to only 26th victory.

In the table, Cologne drew level with Mönchengladbach with 18 points.

Thanks to the better goal difference, the foals, who were unlucky in two aluminum goals by Denis Zakaria (42nd) and Alessane Plea (62nd), still ahead of Cologne.

Jonas Hofmann (74th) managed to equalize in the meantime.

Much had been discussed in advance that, despite the high number of infections, 50,000 spectators were allowed into the stadium under 2G conditions.

Shortly before the start of the game, the Cologne health department ordered that masks are also required on the courts.

Despite repeated requests from the stadium announcer, not all spectators adhered to it.

The fans saw a heated and competitive, but by no means high-class derby from the start. Cologne tried, emotionally whipped as usual by Baumgart, to put the playfully superior Gladbachers under pressure with high pressure. So Cologne forced ball wins again and again, but the first real scoring chance was a long time coming. It wasn't until the 29th minute that Duda came to a dangerous conclusion at the end of a beautiful combination, but Yann Sommer was there. Shortly afterwards, the Gladbach goalkeeper reacted with lightning speed to a header from Anthony Modeste (35th) from close range. On the other hand, Marvin Schwänke only got the opportunity to excel in the final phase of the first half of his first Bundesliga game. The representative of the injured goalkeeper Timo Horn parried in the 41st with a little luck against Patrick Herrmann,then Zakaria hit the far right post from a distance.

After the break, Cologne had to cope with captain Jonas Hector's injury (51st). But the FC was not unsettled by that, Ljubicic hit the corner after a strong combination. After the goal, the game got even more heated and Gladbach tried to respond quickly. Plea hit the post from the spin, national player Hofmann (65th) shot just wide, and Schwabi (67th) also cleared in dire need. Gladbach's trainer Adi Hütter then brought in Florian Neuhaus and Marcus Thuram (66th) two fresh forces to force the equalizer. The goal earned in this phase was achieved by Hofmann. But instead of adding more, Gladbach blundered in the build-up of the game. Uth intercepted a sloppy pass from Neuhaus and took the lead, 90 seconds later Duda followed suit. Andersson brought the end point.