Daum celebrated his 150th match on the Cologne bench in style with a 2-1 win at the Allianz Arena to dent Bayern's title chances and give the 55-year-old the triumph he has been wanting for almost two decades.

"That was the one thing which was lacking in my life," he said afterwards.

Neither Daum nor Bayern's general manager Uli Hoeness have forgotten their war of words which preceded the 1989 title decider between the two clubs.

Bayern won that game 3-1 to pip Cologne to the crown and their relationship has never recovered, while Daum has failed with both Stuttgart and Bayer Leverkusen to gain revenge for that defeat.

Yesterday, on Carnival weekend, he got the sweetest victory of his coaching career.

"To win for the first time in Munich is very moving. I don't know if I can really come to terms with this," he said.

"To win at the upcoming German champions is something special."

And while celebrating his finest hour, Daum even found warm words for his beaten opponents.

"Bayern were certainly the better team, but it is the goals which count in football," he said.

"However, I hope this is the last time that FC Bayern are beaten this season, and I mean that honestly."

The game could have taken a different path had Miroslav Klose's goal in the 14th minute not wrongly been disallowed for offside.

However, Bayern coach Jurgen Klinsmann was more disappointed with his team's performance than that of referee Babak Rafati.

"Quite a few things went wrong today," he said. "Above all, we did not go in for the tackles and tried to resolve everything technically.

"This defeat is frustrating because we have failed again to move to the top of the table."

A second-half consolation goal from Daniel van Buyten was all the hosts had to show for their efforts after Cologne had taken a 2-0 first-half lead through Fabrice Ehert and Daniel Brosinski.

Hamburg have the chance to move four points clear of Bayern by beating Leverkusen today while a win for Leverkusen would take them above Bayern into fourth position, leaving five clubs separated by only two points.