Niclas Füllkrug's second-half leveller earns Werder Bremen a 1-1 draw away at 1. FC Köln

1. FC Köln and Werder Bremen shared the points in a scrappy 1-1 draw at the RheinEnergieStadion, a game that turned on a missed penalty in the first half and a set-piece goal Bremen have made something of a specialty against this opponent.

Köln took the lead in the 11th minute through Linton Maina, the winger finishing across goalkeeper Karl Hein after a move built by Tom Krauß winning the ball and Ellyes Skhiri feeding him into space on the right. Köln had also won a penalty earlier in the move — awarded after Youri Regeer's handball denied a goalbound Sam Dallinga effort — but Hein guessed correctly and saved Dallinga's spot kick low to his right, keeping the game at 1-0 rather than 2-0.

Füllkrug does it from a corner

That missed chance to go further ahead mattered. Werder Bremen were the better side after half-time, and Niclas Füllkrug's poaching instincts found their reward when the striker converted from a corner to level the score. It is the kind of goal that has become a pattern in this fixture — Köln conceded 20 goals from set pieces last season, the most in the division, and have now shipped three in just three matchdays of this one the same way.

Match facts

• 11' — Linton Maina (1. FC Köln), assisted by Ellyes Skhiri
• 43' — Sam Dallinga (1. FC Köln) penalty saved by Karl Hein
• 69' — Niclas Füllkrug (SV Werder Bremen), from a corner

What's next

Köln had gone into the weekend 11th with three points from two games, and a first half in which they led and should arguably have led by more will feel like two points dropped rather than one gained, given how comfortably they controlled the opening 45 minutes. Werder Bremen, who had lost their opener before beating RB Leipzig on matchday 2, extend their unbeaten run to two games and pick up a point on the road against a side they were second-best against for large stretches of the first half.

Contrasting fortunes since

Köln's route to this draw had already been uneven: an opening 3-2 win over TSG Hoffenheim gave way to a 4-1 defeat away at VfB Stuttgart on matchday 2, so the point at home to Werder Bremen halted back-to-back losses rather than compounded them. It did not last. A week later Köln lost 2-1 away at Hamburger SV despite dominating the ball — 68% possession that produced only a stoppage-time consolation from Ragnar Ache, after Nicolás Capaldo and Yussuf Poulsen had put the hosts two goals up either side of half-time. Four matchdays into the campaign, Köln have taken four points from four games, with more of the ball than most opponents but not enough end product to match it.

Werder Bremen's route was rockier still. Daniel Thioune's side had opened the season with a 4-1 defeat away at SC Freiburg before beating RB Leipzig 3-1 at the Weserstadion on matchday 2, so the draw at Köln continued an unbeaten run rather than started one. It kept going: on matchday 4, Bremen came from 2-0 down against FC Augsburg — Robin Fellhauer and Calvin Brackelmann had the visitors seemingly in control inside an hour — to win 3-2 through goals from Marco Grüll, Niclas Füllkrug and substitute Mitchell Weiser, the last of them arriving in the third minute of stoppage time. Two league games without defeat either side of the trip to Köln left Bremen with genuine momentum heading into the international break.

Where both sides stand after four rounds

The two clubs have settled on opposite sides of mid-table since. Werder Bremen sit 8th with 7 points from four games — 2 wins, 1 draw, 1 loss, 8 goals scored and 8 conceded — while Köln are 13th on 4 points, with 1 win, 1 draw and 2 losses from 6 goals scored against 9 conceded. That is a five-place, three-point gap that has opened up in the two matchdays since the two sides shared the points at the RheinEnergieStadion, with Bremen's comeback win over Augsburg doing most of the work to pull them clear of the bottom half.