BERLIN (AP) — Cologne had an injury-time equalizer ruled out through VAR before Freiburg scored twice to win 4-1 in the Bundesliga on Sunday.
Jan Thielmann thought he’d made it 2-2 in the 91st minute to earn Cologne what could be a vital point in its bid to avoid relegation, but a VAR review ruled that the ball came off captain Jonas Hector’s upper arm when setting him up. Cologne fans will argue that it was Hector’s shoulder.
There was still time for Vincenzo Grifo and Jonathan Schmid to score two more for the visitors to leave Cologne second last in an automatic relegation spot with two rounds of the season remaining.
Ondrej Duda should have equalized earlier for Cologne, but he slipped as he was taking a penalty and sent the spot kick over.
Cologne remained one point behind Arminia Bielefeld and Hertha Berlin ahead of their relegation battle in Berlin later.
FRANKFURT FRUSTRATED
Eintracht Frankfurt’s bid to reclaim fourth place and the last spot for Champions League qualification was foiled in a 1-1 draw with Mainz.
It could have been even worse for the home side, with Karim Onisiwo missing a great chance to seal the win for Mainz in the 76th minute. Goalkeeper Kevin Trapp got the better of their one-on-one.
Onisiwo had fired the visitors ahead in the 11th minute, but Ajdin Hrustic equalized with five minutes of normal time remaining when he recovered from a fall to loop the ball in under the crossbar while getting up.
Frankfurt dropped a point behind Borussia Dortmund with two rounds remaining in their race for Champions League qualification. Frankfurt next visits already-relegated Schalke before Freiburg visits for their last game. Dortmund visits Mainz – now unbeaten in nine games – then hosts Bayer Leverkusen for the season finale.
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Ciarán Fahey on Twitter: https://twitter.com/cfaheyAP