Anthony Modeste (bottom) had his best-ever Bundesliga season, netting 15 times for the Billy Goats. - © © imago / mika
Anthony Modeste (bottom) had his best-ever Bundesliga season, netting 15 times for the Billy Goats. - © © imago / mika

Season Review 2015/16: 1. FC Köln

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1. FC Köln achieved their season objective of staying in the top flight, doing so without becoming involved in a relegation skirmish that went right down to the wire. bundesliga.com looks back on how they did it.

Season in a nutshell

The Billy Goats began their campaign superbly, taking seven points from their first three outings, and ended it with an impressive run of five games without defeat. In short, Köln enjoyed a carefree season in which they steered well clear of relegation for the most part. As an added bonus, coach Peter Stöger's men also picked up impressive victories against European qualifiers Borussia Dortmund, FC Schalke 04, Borussia Mönchengladbach and Bayer 04 Leverkusen.

Top three games

MD8: FC Schalke 04 0-3 1. FC Köln

Schalke had picked up 16 points from their first seven games and were full of confidence going into this encounter, yet they could find no way through a stubborn Köln side. The Billy Goats were ruthlessly efficient on the counter-attack, with goals from Modeste, Yannick Gerhardt und Simon Zoller giving the guests a thoroughly-deserved victory.

MD17: 1. FC Köln 2-1 Borussia Dortmund

Stöger's men ended 2015 with a bang, defeating the mighty Dortmund in their final game of the calendar year. The visitors went 1-0 up, but Köln struck back with two late goals from Zoller and Modeste to seal an unlikely victory.

MD31: 1. FC Köln 4-1 SV Darmstadt 98

This was far and away Köln's best performance at home. Stöger's charges played a strong away side off the park and made up for some previous below-par displays at the RheinEnergieStadion to secure their top-flight status for another year.

MVP

Brought in to replace last season's leading scorer Anthony Ujah, Modeste hit the ground running in Köln by scoring six times in his first eight league outings. An eight-game barren spell followed, but the Frenchman was rewarded for his perseverance by scoring the winner against Dortmund on Matchday 17. In total the 28-year-old netted 15 times and provided three assists in the Bundesliga in 2015/16, meaning he was directly involved in almost half of the team's 38 goals.

- © imago / Jan Huebner