FC St. Pauli

Head coach Markus Kauczinski made several changes to the side that started at Union Berlin. Luca Zander began at right-back, allowing Jeremy Dudziak to move up into midfield. Waldemar Sobota and Henk Veerman also came into the side in place of Bernd Nehrig and Dimitrios Diamantakos, who dropped to the bench.

There are games when the two sides need a little time to get a feel for the conditions, each other and their own game, but this wasn't one of them. Both teams started at a scintillating pace, with the visitors enjoying slightly the better of the opening exchanges. Their first opportunity arrived on four minutes when Christian Clemens was released on the right and wasted no time getting a shot off. Robin Himmelmann was alert to the danger, however, sticking out a foot to divert the ball away from goal.

But then came the 13^th minute. Put under pressure on the left-hand side, Marcel Risse knocked the ball back towards a teammate, only to see it land at the feet of Henk Veerman, who gleefully accepted the invitation to bend a shot into the far corner of Timo Horn's goal. Fifteen minutes into his first competitive start and on his home debut, the new signing had his goal.

One could have been forgiven for thinking the visitors, stung by going behind, would look to hit back straightaway, but the action continued to unfold at the other end. Five minutes later, Sobota, elegantly played in by Dudziak, tested Horn's aerial qualities with another curling effort, but this time the Cologne custodian came out on top.

The Millerntor had been on fine form to this point but the noise levels reached a crescendo in the 25^th minute. Collecting the ball on the left, Buchtmann had all the time in the world to pick out Dudziak, not exactly known for his heading ability, in the box. But the pinpoint cross produced an equally pinpoint header, and it was 2-0. The goal sparked incredible scenes, and it seemed as if Kauczinski's side could do nothing wrong at this stage of the game.

On 35 minutes, however, Cologne gave everyone a glimpse of their outstanding quality. Louis Schaub exploited the space on the right to dispatch a superb cross towards Clemens, and he directed a glancing header into the far corner to reduce the deficit. Just ten minutes later, it was all square. Clemens and Dominick Drexler combined their way through the penalty area and the latter pulled the ball back for Simon Terodde, perfectly placed, to slide home in clinical fashion.

Kauczinski was forced into a substitution at half-time, introducing Richard Neudecker for the ailing Mats Møller-Dæhli in a like-for-like change. Unfortunately, his charges made the worst possible start to the second half, conceding twice in five minutes before the hour. First it was Terodde who got up after being brought down by Himmelmann in the box to convert from the spot on 53, and then Guirassy finished off a quick break by tapping home from close range.

The Boys in Brown took a few minutes to regain their composure but when they did they were immediately successful. Sobota slipped the ball to Buchtmann in the inside-right channel, and his shot took a deflection off Jannes Horn and looped over his namesake's head into the net. That was the impetus Kauczinski's team needed to get back in the game. And moments later substitute Diamantakos was denied an equaliser by a last-ditch lunge from a Cologne defender.

As the game entered the final quarter of an hour, the Boys in Brown rallied for a final onslaught. That left them vulnerable to one of Cologne's dangerous counterthrusts, however. And though Diamantakos was presented with another opportunity to level the scores, the goal came at the other end, Salih Özcan setting the seal on a 5-3 defeat in the fifth minute of time added on.

FC St. Pauli

Himmelmann – Zander, Ziereis, Knoll, Buballa – Flum – Sobota (Diamantakos 67'), Dudziak (Sahin 79'), Buchtmann, Møller-Dæhli (Neudecker 45') – Veerman

Head coach: Markus Kauczinski

FC Köln

Köln– Risse (Höger 55'), Sobiech, Czichos, Horn – Hector – Clemens (Hauptmann 69'), Schaub, Drexler, Guirassy (Özcan 89') – Terodde

Head coach: Markus Anfang

Goals: 1-0 Veerman (13'), 2-0 Dudziak (25'), 2-1 Clemens (35'), 2-2 Terodde (45'), 2-3 Terodde (53'), 2-4 Guirassy (58'), 3-4 Buchtmann (66') 3-5 Özcan (90'+5)

Yellow cards: Møller-Dæhli – Sobiech

Referee: Benjamin Cortus

Attendance: 29,546