Ramon Hendriks came on in the 78th minute, and in the 81st he scored Köln’s goal
Stuttgart beat Köln 4-1 on Friday, a week after Bayern put five past them. The visitors’ only goal was turned in by a Stuttgart substitute who had been on the pitch three minutes.
Sep 5, 2026
Ramon Hendriks came off the bench in the 78th minute on Friday night. In the 81st he scored Köln’s goal. Stuttgart won 4-1 anyway, which tells you how little the own goal mattered and how much everything before it did.
A week on from Munich
Seven days earlier Stuttgart had been taken apart 5-1 at Bayern Munich on the opening night of the season, a game in which Josha Vagnoman managed to score at both ends inside six minutes. So the Matchday 2 opener at home to Köln was less about three points than about proving the first night had been an aberration.
“We wanted to show a reaction after the Bayern game and that’s what we’ve done,” Grischa Prömel told DAZN afterwards. He scored the second.
Köln, who had beaten Hoffenheim 3-2 in their own opener, held out until the 39th minute, and by then Stuttgart had already hit the woodwork twice. Then Bilal El Khannouss picked the ball up and ran at them, nutmegging Luka Lochoshvili on his way past two defenders before sliding a low finish into the bottom corner. Vagnoman got the assist. It was the sort of goal that ends an argument about whether a team has recovered its confidence, and it won El Khannouss the player-of-the-match award.
The loan Stuttgart turned into a signing
El Khannouss spent last season at Stuttgart on loan from Leicester City, and the move was made permanent on 1 July for a fee neither club put a number on. He is 22, he plays for Morocco, and Leicester signed him from Genk in the summer of 2024. Two years on they are watching him run games in the Bundesliga.
Stuttgart’s half-time lead was one goal and should have been more. Köln came out after the break with something to say and were two down by the hour, Prömel finishing from a Maximilian Mittelstädt pass. Ermedin Demirović, on from the bench, made it three on 75 minutes.
Then Hendriks did Köln a favour
Mittelstädt came off on 78 and Hendriks replaced him. Three minutes later Marius Bülter got a ball into the box and the Dutch defender turned it into his own net. Nine minutes of normal time were left, and at 3-1 there was, in theory, something for the visitors to chase.
Vagnoman removed the theory. A minute into stoppage time he met a loose ball first time from more than 20 yards and volleyed it past the goalkeeper. Last week his highlight reel had a goal and an own goal on it. This week it has a volley.
What it sets up
Stuttgart finished fourth last season and are back in the Champions League because of it. Viking come to Stuttgart on Wednesday for the opening league-phase game, and a side that had conceded five on Matchday 1 will go into it having scored four.
Köln have three points from two games and a goal difference that has already turned negative. Losing 4-1 away to a Champions League club in September is not a crisis. Losing it that passively might become one.