Festive day at the cathedral: Cologne beats Bremen 7: 1 – sports

1. FC Cologne – SV Werder Bremen 7: 1 (5: 1), Gates: 1-0 Linton Maina (9th), 2-0 and 3-0 Steffen Tigges (15th, 21st), 4-0 and 6-1 Ellyes Skhiri (30th, 54th), 5-0 Denis Huseinbasic ( 36.), 5: 1 Niclas Füllkrug (38.), 7: 1 Marco Friedl (76., own goal)

Sometimes you felt like you were in a dream, a beautiful nightmare for some and a pitch-black nightmare for others. Because the end of this eventful Saturday was something that had never happened in the almost 60-year history of the Bundesliga: For the first time in its long history, Werder Bremen conceded five goals in one half, and in the end it was even seven. Strictly speaking, 1. FC Köln only needed 29 minutes for the first handful of goals.

And it was almost funny how Bremen scored the first three goals: At 1-0, a botched Bremen free-kick trick led to a counterattack, which Maina sank 18 seconds after the set piece. At 2:0 Duksch played a weak pass, Steffen Tigges was there, but his big performance followed. When it was 3-0, the former Cologne player had the ball tipped off his foot in his own half. Goalkeeper Pavlenka had to rush far from the penalty area to clear – but the ball came immediately into the possession of Tigges, who took two steps before slamming the ball in from nearly 50 yards into the unoccupied Bremen goal. Cologne’s shock striker, who had been given preference over winter shopping Selke, was not yet satisfied. He did the preparatory work for two other goals – in which Bremen were not free from guilt and clumsiness, but at least Skhiri and Huseinbasic did not put the ball on directly.

Almost directly after the celebrations in Cologne, Bremen scored the first goal, scored by Niclas Füllkrug, which triggered a dance from FC coach Steffen Baumgart, who wanted to nip any arrogance and premature thoughts about the next game (on Tuesday in Munich) in the bud . That worked: Tigges initially failed at the post and shot over the goal shortly after the change – but Skhiri scored dreamlike with a side kick to make it 6:1 after a nice cross from Maina. Bremen had watched long enough, so Friedel pushed a cross over his own goal line to … yes, to 7:1. The only drop of bitterness for Cologne: Shortly after Baumgart made voluntary changes (including Selke for Tigges, who looked somewhat puzzled), the extremely strong Skhiri had to leave the field due to a foot injury.

Eintracht Frankfurt – FC Schalke 04 3: 0 (1: 0), Goals: 1-0 Jesper Lindstrom (22′), 2-0 Rafael Borré (84′), 3-0 Aurelio Buta (90’+1′)

One of the eternal wisdoms of football is that clubs at risk of relegation are plagued by bad luck, while teams at the top have the sun shining down their sleeves. The latest example for the gallery: Eintracht Frankfurt’s game against bottom-placed Schalke 04, which the new second-placed team from Hesse won 3-0.

For 20 minutes, the weakened guests didn’t even look that bad. Eintracht striker Lindström then went on his own, sent opponent Matriciani with a rather simple wobble and pocketed the ball coolly to make it 1-0 (22′). So everything as expected? Not at all. The guests ignored the score and remained cheekily forward-looking, annoying the Hessians so much that one could ask which of the two teams is active in the Champions League. But Terodde’s header was deflected to the post by Trapp (28′), Kazuki hit the post (32′) and Bülter’s shot went just wide of the post (33′). The second half started similarly: Kazuki headed the ball, Trapp made a brilliant save (47′); Headball from the outrageously free Terodde – over it (54th).

Only then did Frankfurt get a better grip on the game, Schalke got tired, Borré imitated Lindström and put the ball into the far corner (84′), buta, who came on as a substitute, made it 3-0 (90′ + 1′). Of what use was the visitors’ assessment that they didn’t look like a team that had lost nine of their last ten games? This is not particularly comforting when the scheduler has a rendezvous with RB Leipzig ready at the end of the first half of the season after games against FC Bayern and Frankfurt.

VfL Wolfsburg – SC Freiburg 6: 0 (3: 0), Goals: 1: 0 Patrick Wimmer (1st), 2: 0 and 3: 0 Jonas Wind (28th, 37th), 4: 0 Yannick Gerhardt (56th), 5: 0 Ridle Baku (80th)

In the last game before the World Cup break, SC Freiburg filetted the competitor Union Berlin, after 45 minutes it was 4-0. This time the people of Breisgau got to feel how something like that feels, because after 45 minutes they were 0:3 behind at VfL Wolfsburg.

For both teams, the World Cup break had basically come at the wrong time: after the hearty 5-0 defeat in Munich, Freiburg had won four of the final five games before the Qatar break, Wolfsburg had even been undamaged in seven games, won five of them and had moved up from 17th to seventh place. And there was no question which team was on fire: Wimmer got through the first attack between two Freiburg players and after 59 seconds pushed the ball past Flekken with his pick to make it 1-0. Freiburg was slowly warming up, but without the ill Vincenzo Grifo (infection) only posed a threat once (Höfler failed at Casteels, 17th), before Wind scored the 2-0 (25th) after an assist from Wimmer. And because it was one of those afternoons, Wind held his knee in a low cross in the 37th minute and even made it 3-0.

Wolfsburg stayed hungry after the change and showed themselves superior in every respect: playfully, tactically and in terms of commitment. Gerhardt meandered through Freiburg’s keeper Flekken (56′) to make it 4-0, Baku hammered the ball into the corner after a free kick to make it 5-0 (80′), and Waldschmidt completed the humiliation with a penalty in injury time to make it 6-0 ( 90.+4).

VfB Stuttgart – FSV Mainz 05 1: 1 (1: 1), Goals: 1-0 Serhou Guirassy (36′), 1-1 Marcus Ingvartsen (40′, penalty kick)

He works very meticulously, Bruno Labbadia had announced that before he returned to a coaching bench in the Bundesliga after a two-year break. Even his assistant coaches are sometimes annoyed by him, “because I keep checking to see if the lines are right or something.” And what must say? When Labbadia sent his Stuttgart team onto the field against Mainz on Saturday, luckily the lines on both sides weren’t so coherent that the spirit of the game would have been damaged. It went back and forth, but above all, in the direction of the Stuttgart goal. Nevertheless, after 36 minutes Wataru Endo sent the ball under pressure through the last Mainz defensive line, Serhou Guirassy broke free and pushed in with the outside of his foot, which is worth seeing. Mainz would have deserved a goal at this point – and at least scored the equalizer shortly afterwards. The video referee realized that Naouirou Ahamada had only hit Leandro Barreiro’s leg when he tried to clear things in his own penalty area; Marcus Ingvartsen shot the penalty due into the left corner.

Stuttgart put on more pressure in the second half, but the crossbar became the real hero of the second 45 minutes: First she cleared a shot from Mainz’s Aymen Barkok, then one from Guirassy. Mainz remembered a little too late that they could have won this game. If the lines fit a little better soon, it could be something with the Stuttgart relegation.

1. FC Union Berlin – TSG Hoffenheim 3: 1 (0: 1), Goals: 0-1 Ihlas Bebou (44′), 1-1 and 2-1 Danilho Doekhi (73′, 90′), 3-1 Jamie Leweling (90+6′)

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An extremely lively game developed between the snowflakes in East Berlin. 17-year-old Tom Bischof could have put TSG ahead early on, but missed from an excellent position, shortly before that a volley from Sheraldo Becker flew over the Hoffenheim goal. Union got a penalty after 25 minutes because Ihlas Bebou jumped into a cross like a basketball player with his arm outstretched – something you rarely see. However, Jordan hit the post and Bebou made up for his blackout by scoring from a counterattack to make it 1-0 just before half-time. Shortly before, Frederik Rönnow had prevented an earlier TSG lead with a save.

From the Union’s point of view, the second half was initially under the motto: The pill doesn’t want to go in. Knoche, Haberer, Trimmel – all shot well, but all missed the goal. After 11-0 shots on goal in the second half, Danilho Doekhi finally headed the overdue 1-1 for the Irons. And when everyone thought that Union deserved the win because of this second half – Doekhi headed the winning goal after a Trimmel corner. The Alte Försterei celebrated in the snow, Leweling’s late 3-1 was just the catalyst of the party.

VfL Bochum – Hertha BSC 3: 1 (2: 0), Goals: 1-0 and 3-0 Philipp Hofmann (22′, 56′), 2-0 Keven Schlotterbeck (45′), 3-1 Suat Serdar (87′)

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A whiff of Japan wafted through Bochum’s Ruhr Stadium at the beginning. Although, strictly speaking, only the memory of the game Japan against Spain at the last World Cup in Qatar blew. Seven weeks ago, at the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha, Kaoru Mitoma passed the ball from the touchline to Ao Tanaka, who shot it into the goal. The goal withstood the review of the video referee, Japan won – and Germany was eliminated. On Saturday in Bochum Hertha’s Jean-Paul Boetius crossed in a very similar way from goal out into the middle, Bochum’s Saidy Janko intercepted the ball and was already on his way towards the Berlin goal before he lost the ball again – and Hertha made it 1-0. The video assistant then checked Boetius cross, correctly determined that the ball had been out of bounds – and conceded the goal. But wasn’t the goal causally detached from Boetius’ cross, because a Bochum counterattack had taken place in between? Then the video referee shouldn’t have examined the position of the ball in front of the cross.

Only after this contentious scene in the 12th minute did Bochum, who had been defeated before, come into play; Philipp Hofmann took the lead out of nowhere, and just before the half-time whistle Keven Schlotterbeck, freshly loaned from SC Freiburg, increased the lead. Even when the hosts followed up with a textbook counterattack in the second half to make it 3-0, that didn’t break Hertha’s will to resist: Bochum won the ball after a corner from Berlin, and Hofmann sent Christopher Antwi-Adjei, who ran , as if the devil were after him, lifted his head and alluded to the Hofmann who had gone with him. He took off, scored for the second time that day – and just missed his third goal. Shortly before the end, Hofmann shot over the goal again. And Hertha’s Suat Serdar earned at least one diligence point with his shot to make it 1:3.