Cologne pulled a brilliant come back of their own to snatch a point from the jaws of defeat in a 2-2 thriller against Fortuna Dusseldorf at the RheinEnergie Stadion on Sunday.
But despite the fightback, their Europa League charge suffered another massive blow with the result.
Cologne threw away a two-goal lead against Mainz last weekend, but were still the favourites ahead of kickoff with their excellent run of form in the second half of the Bundesliga campaign, helping them to eight wins in their last 12 fixtures since mid-December.
Uwe Rosler’s men did not stick to the script though as Kenan Karaman’s fine finish late in the first half, and an Erik Thommy strike early in the second appeared to have condemned the hosts to their 14th defeat of the campaign.
However, two late headers from Anthony Modeste and Jhon Cordoba pulled the hosts back from the brink and secured their second consecutive stalemates in as many match days.
F95 took the lead four minutes to the break thanks to Karaman, who converted with a right footed shot from the right side of the box off an assist by Steven Skrzybski.
Cologne had the chance to draw level on the hour mark, but Florian Kastenmeier, in the visitors’ goal, blocked Mark Uth’s spot-kick.
Meanwhile, Ehizibue who came on last week made way for Jorge Mere in a tactical substitution, but it did little to aid the hosts’ cause as more trouble soon followed.
The brilliant Skrzybski supplied yet another assist for Thommy to double the visitors’ lead as Cologne looked dead and out.
But Modeste glanced home an 88-minute header – thanks to a superb delivery from Dominick Drexler – to reduce the deficit and set up a frantic finish to an exhilarating encounter.
And it got better two minutes later when Cordoba headed home the equalizer off another Drexler assist.
There was no Maduka Okoye in the lineup for the visitors as the Super Eagles goalkeeper is reportedly close to moving to the Eredivisie.
