Starting the preparation for the 2nd leg of the German Bundesliga, Schalke travelled to Cologne on January, 8th, 2006, for a friendly match. Host Viktoria COlogne even was a former 2nd division team in the early 1980s, so that quite a large crowd watched that match.
Cologne gave their guests a great fight and just got three of the four goals late in the second half of the match. Especially in the first 45 minutes, they were able to keep up with the Gelsenkirchen team.