More Minutes Earned In Köln Friendly Defeat

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More Minutes Earned In Köln Friendly Defeat

FC Köln handed us our first defeat of pre-season on Friday, sealing a 3-1 victory at Merkur Arena in Graz, as pre-season preparations continue for Martí Cifuentes and his new Leicester City squad.

2025-07-25T17:55+01:00

by Sam Stevens

Published

25 Jul, 2025

More Minutes Earned In Köln Friendly Defeat

FC Köln handed us our first defeat of pre-season on Friday, sealing a 3-1 victory at Merkur Arena in Graz, as pre-season preparations continue for Martí Cifuentes and his new Leicester City squad.

Sam Stevens

2025-07-25T17:55+01:00

More Minutes Earned In Köln Friendly Defeat

FC Köln handed us our first defeat of pre-season on Friday, sealing a 3-1 victory at Merkur Arena in Graz, as pre-season preparations continue for Martí Cifuentes and his new Leicester City squad.

Sam Stevens

2025-07-25T17:55+01:00

More Minutes Earned In Köln Friendly Defeat

FC Köln handed us our first defeat of pre-season on Friday, sealing a 3-1 victory at Merkur Arena in Graz, as pre-season preparations continue for Martí Cifuentes and his new Leicester City squad.

Sam Stevens

2025-07-25T17:55+01:00

More Minutes Earned In Köln Friendly Defeat

FC Köln handed us our first defeat of pre-season on Friday, sealing a 3-1 victory at Merkur Arena in Graz, as pre-season preparations continue for Martí Cifuentes and his new Leicester City squad.

Sam Stevens

2025-07-25T17:55+01:00

Sebastian Sebulonsen's breakaway opener gave the German outfit a fifth-minute lead, which was doubled by Luca Waldschmidt's brilliant curled effort in the 17th minute.

City did hit back just before half-time, as Kasey McAteer pounced in the box, but Florian Kainz's 87th-minute goal - swept home on the rebound after Jakub Stolarczyk saved his spot-kick - ensured victory for Köln. Nevertheless, this game concludes a worthwhile double-header of friendlies across Friday, after an earlier 2-1 win over FC Karpaty Lviv, as a productive nine-day camp in central Europe comes to a close for Cifuentes' men.

As was the case in that Karpaty game, many of the players involved benefited from extended minutes, some playing the full 90, as fitness loading continues ahead of the new Sky Bet Championship season.

Köln race ahead

It was the newly-promoted Bundesliga side who set the early pace in Graz. When Sebulonsen was played through just five minutes in, the Norwegian showed composure to slot it past Stolarczyk to make it 1-0.

A stunning stop from our Polish 'keeper kept the scores down, at least in the short term, as Sebulonsen's cross was headed goalwards by Jakub Kaminski. Stolarczyk, though, flung his arms out acrobatically to keep the VfL Wolfsburg loanee at bay.

Before long, though, it was indeed 2-0 to the Germans. Waldschmidt’s curler was unstoppable and gave Lukas Kwasniok's Die Geißböcke a comfortable lead after just 17 minutes. James Justin was especially close to replicating the feat at the other end, although Marvin Schwäbe’s excellent stop was enough to frustrate our No.2.

City work back

Jeremy Monga was the next player in blue to test Schwäbe, skipping past three Köln midfielders, later belting it towards the bottom corner, but the ‘keeper was there.

There was a degree of pressure building for City. Justin’s header caused issues in the box, but the Köln backline was able to scramble the ball away. Cifuentes' men deserved more than to be two goals behind before the break.

Monga’s quick feet had the defenders guessing. He slipped it over to Louis Page and, while the youngsters’ effort was blocked, McAteer was lurking, ready to slam the rebound into the net and halve the Leicester arrears.

Connections & late chances

There was some intrigue in the Köln squad for the Blue Army. Ísak Bergmann Jóhannesson, in midfield, is the son of former Fox Joey Guðjónsson, who represented us between 2004-2006. Goalkeeper Ron-Robert Zieler, on the other hand, made nine LCFC appearances in 2016/17 and also emerged from the bench at half-time.

It was Said El Mala, mind you, who created his side’s next opening, on 76 minutes. He burst down the left channel and skidded one wide as the two sides started to make use of their bench. For the second week in a row, Abdul Fatawu emerged for the latter moments in Graz, continuing to work his way back after an eight-month absence.

Silko Thomas could have got us level in the dying moments, but he couldn’t divert Jordan Ayew’s cross towards goal. In the end, though, it was 3-1 to Köln as Kainz was alert to recover from Stolarczyk's penalty save to convert from five yards out and put distance between the two sides. City now return to the UK ahead of next weekend's test on Filbert Way against Serie A side Fiorentina, before the 25/26 campaign gets started seven days later.

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