Winless Cologne squander three-goal lead and lose 4-3

BERLIN – 11 December 2017: Bottom-of-the-table Cologne's dismal season took another twist on Sunday when they blew a three-goal lead to lose 4-3 at home to fellow strugglers Freiburg and remain winless after 15 games in the Bundesliga.

In a game that began half an hour late for snow to be cleared from the pitch, Nils Petersen scored two penalties in the final minutes to complete a hat-trick and win the match for the visitors, who began the day one place above their opponents.

Cologne, in their first league game under caretaker coach Stefan Ruthenbeck after Peter Stoeger was fired a week ago, looked certain to pick up their first league win of the season as they raced to a 3-0 lead in less than half an hour.

"What happened today was very painful," said Ruthenbeck. "We began well and did everything right early on. But after halftime the game was turned on its head."

Lukas Kluenter sidefooted home from Milos Jojic's pass to put them ahead, Sehrou Guirassy won and converted a penalty and Caleb Stanko turned Konstantin Rausch's cross into his own goal.

It began to go wrong for the Billy Goats when Petersen volleyed one back five minutes before halftime and the tension was palpable after Janik Haberer headed a second in the 65th minute.

Petersen then equalised with his first penalty in the 89th minute, after Salih Ozcan fouled Nicolas Hoefler, and struck the winner from the spot in the fifth minute of stoppage time, this time following handball by Guirassy.

Cologne remained stuck on three points at the bottom, eleven adrift of Werder Bremen, while Freiburg climbed out of the direct relegation spots to 16th with 15 points.