Cologne and Schalke alive and kicking in Bundesliga relegation battles

Two games in a day! Matt takes advantage of a favourable fixture list and the nationwide Deutschlandticket train pass to report from relegation battles from the Ruhrgebiet to the Rhineland.

Cologne produced their best performance since October and were rewarded with their first win of 2024, beating Eintracht Frankfurt 2-0 at a raucous Müngersdorfer Stadion to reignite their bid to stay in the Bundesliga. Both goals, scored by Faride Alidou and Jan Thielmann, came after Frankfurt had been reduced to ten men, Niels Nkounkou having earnt himself two yellow cards in the space of 11 second-half minutes. But Cologne had more than matched Frankfurt in the first half, too, and their first win under Timo Schulz was well deserved. Earlier in the day, in another relegation battle, Schalke kept their survival hopes alive in the 2. Bundesliga with a vital win over fellow strugglers Eintracht Braunschweig. But relegation is the least of their worries …