1. FC Köln played the second friendly match of the winter break against VfB Stuttgart on Wednesday afternoon. The match ended in a goalless draw, but FC were able to welcome back Leonardo Bittencourt on the pitch.

The first 45 minutes of the match were characterized by a dominant display from 1. FC Köln. Artjoms Rudnevs was at the center of the action. First, he put an effort over the bar following an excellent delivery by Konstantin Rausch on the left side. Then he was narrowly flagged offside for an effort he put in the back of the net. Just before the stroke of halftime he had another chance, but Mitchell Langerak made a brilliant stop to deny the FC Striker in the 1v1 situation.

Leonardo Bittencourt came on to start the second half to celebrate his comeback following a three-month spell on the sidelines. Near the hour mark FC introduced three players from the U-19 side: Birk Risa, Beyhan Ametov, and Hikmet Ciftci. The second half saw both sides looking for a goal and a lot of back-and-forth, but neither side were able to claim the decisive goal. Thus, the match ended in a goalless draw.

Match Details

1. FC Köln: Sven Müller - Pawel Olkowski, Frederik Sorensen, Dominic Maroh (Risa, 64'), Dominique Heintz, Konstantin Rausch (Ametov, 64') - Marco Höger (Özcan, 46'), Jonas Hector (Ciftci, 64') - Christian Clemens (Jojic, 46'), Artjoms Rudnevs (Modeste, 46'), Simon Zoller (Bittencourt, 46')

VfB Stuttgart: Langerak, Baumgartl, Hosogai, Grgic, Maxim, Klein, Werner, Grosskreutz, Özcan, Ginczek, Kaminski