Jordan Pefok made his return to the Union Berlin line-up as they had to thank FC Cologne as their own goal helped the capital team to the win and placed them atop the Bundesliga standings.
FC Cologne 0-1 Union Berlin
An own goal early in the first half was all Union Berlin needed as they left the Rhein Energie Stadion with the win over FC Cologne to move them into first place in the Bundesliga standings.
Jordan Pefok made his return to the starting line-up after being scratched last weekend, playing 75 minutes, winning 12 duels and completing a key pass.
The visitors were on the attack just three minutes into the contest. Pefok sent a pass to his strike partner Sheraldo Becker, who attempted to put a shot on target. The ball, however, took a deflection off the foot of Cologne center-back Timo Hubers and ended up in the back of the net.
Union had a chance to double their lead minutes later when the referee pointed to the spot for a penalty when Luca Kilian made contact with the ball with his arm. Pefok was tasked with taking the spot-kick, but Cologne goalkeeper Marvin Schwabe stood his ground and made the save.
The hosts had no answers as the game entered the second half and the day got even worse for them as Kilian was shown his second yellow card in the 81st minute for a ridiculous tackle, leaving the to play with ten men.
In the end, three points for Union and they remain one of two unbeaten teams in the Bundesliga.
Union Berlin sits in first place in the standings on 14 points.
Notes
Elsewhere in the Bundesliga, Giovanni Reyna came on to play 30 minutes, but Borussia Dortmund was roughed up in a 3-0 defeat to RB Leipzig.
Joe Scally went the distance for Borussia Monchengladbach as they were held by Freiburg in a 0-0 draw.
Neither Timothy Chandler nor Kevin Paredes played for their respective teams as Wolfsburg came away with a 1-0 win over Eintracht Frankfurt.
In the 2. Bundesliga, Terrence Boyd played the full 90 for Kaiserslautern as they surrendered a stoppage-time goal to settle for a point in their thrilling 3-3 draw with his former team Darmstadt.
Lennard Maloney kept things steady in the back for Heidenheim in their 0-0 draw with Karlsruhe.
George Bello came on to play three minutes and some change for Arminia Bielefeld as a late regulation time goal saw them fall to Nurnberg in a 1-0 defeat.
Timothy Tillman played 88 minutes while Julian Green came on to play 30 as Greuther Furth suffered a narrow 2-1 loss to Magdeburg.
Down in the 3. Liga, Johan Gomez scored the eventual game-winner for Zwickau to seal a 1-0 victory over Erzgebirge Aue.
Isaiah Young and Rot-Weiss Essen had no answers as they fell in a 1-0 loss to Osnabruck.
Jalen Hawkins came on to play a couple of minutes in Ingolstadt’s 1-0 win over Waldhof Mannheim.
Kevin Lankford came off the bench to play three minutes as Viktoria Cologne blew their lead to settle for a 2-2 draw with Hallescher.
