El Mala and Dallinga fire Cologne to opening-day win over Hoffenheim

As the clock entered the 72nd minute of the entertaining opening-day clash, things looked a little bleak for  Cologne . Trailing 2-1 after  Hoffenheim 's Adam Daghim and  Ozan Kabak had struck either side of an excellent El Mala equaliser, and having already substituted their goalscoring talisman, it appeared as if their 2026/27 Bundesliga campaign was off to a stuttering start.

That was reckoning without the significant impact of debutant Dutchman  Dallinga , who had come off the bench in the 65th minute to replace Ragnar Ache , at the same time that El Mala was being replaced by Linton Maina , in an astute roll of the dice by head coach  René Wagner that would pay dividends within a matter of minutes.

First, Maina made a strong overlapping run down the right and sent the ball across for Dallinga, who timed his incursion into the box to perfection and slammed the ball home with his left foot for 2-2. Then, as if that were not impactful enough, the lively striker, who joined the club on loan from Serie A side Bologna just under two weeks ago , showed great alertness to pounce on a loose ball in the area and steer it home with conviction to hand his new side a 3-2 lead with eight minutes to go.