Koln earned promotion back to the Bundesliga on Sunday with a commander 4-0 win over Kaiserslautern, who made sure that they ended the season as 2. Bundesliga champions.
The triple Bundesliga title winners made light work of the game in the RheinnergiStadion and took control early with the first half of Eric Martel and Luca Waldschmidt.
Martel opened the score in the 14th minute, while Waldschmidt followed the example in the 29th when Koln enjoyed a comfortable outing.
They added a third through Florian Kainz in the 76th minute before Mark Uth hit three minutes of time to confirm their return to the Bundesliga, just a year after their relegation.
They return to top football together with the already promoted Hamburger SV, who lost 3-2 to Greuther Fuerth to end the season on 59 points, two behind Koln.
Promoted as champions! __ 4: 0 #koefck #effzeh pic.twitter.com/texilbqzhe
– 1. FC Cologne (@fckoeln_en) May 18, 2025
This marks the seventh promotion from Koln to the first division, with only Nurnberg and Arminia Bielefeld being promoted more often (eight times each).
It also marks a record seventh promotion to the Bundesliga for manager Friedhelm funkel.
This season Koln has been one of the form teams of the 2. Bundesliga and manages a clean leadership in 11 of their 34 games.
Only the third place Elversberg have managed more clean sheets, with 13, and they will now go a play-off of promotion/relegation against Heidenheim, which ended in 16th place in the Bundesliga.