Bundesliga:

Freiburg picked up their third win of the season over Cologne to put a bit of breathing space between themselves and the relegation zone on Saturday.

Mike Frantz scored the only goal of the game to secure Freiburg's second win in a row and take them above Hannover in the standings, three points ahead of 16th-placed Hamburg and just two points adrift of their guests.

Having already beaten them away from home and in the DFB-Pokal, victory crowned a hat-trick of wins for Freiburg over Cologne this season.

With Cologne drawing 0-0 seven times already this season, few would really have expected an exciting goal fest at the Dreisamstadion, and at least that ensured few would have been particularly disappointed with what quickly became a scrappy affair.

With very few chances but plenty of tackles, it stood to reason that the weather was as dismal as the action on the field.

One flash of lightning - on the field not off it - saw Freiburg gain the lead with the first chance of the match, Frantz heading in from Oliver Sorg's deftly-chipped pass.

That was in the 37th minute - already late enough in the game as far as Freiburg were concerned to put up the barricades.

Cologne inevitably had to try to batter them down, and they nearly succeeded with Marcel Risse striking the post from a tight angle.

On one of Freiburg's rare remaining attacks, Admir Mehmedi also struck the frame of the goal, but it was otherwise a defensive effort from Christian Streich's men which saw them through to a crucial three points.