Bayern Munich’s unbeaten run ended at lowly Koln, while Mainz were held and Bayer Leverkusen stunned in Bundesliga on Saturday.
Bayern, who had not lost a match in any competition since a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Schalke in early December, went down 3-2 at Koln despite leading by two goals at the break.
Mario Gomez put the visitors ahead in the 22nd minute, beating Michael Rensing with a clever poke through the Koln shot-stopper’s legs.
When Hamit Altintop hammered one in from the right two minutes from first-half injury time it appeared Bayern were well on their way to a sixth straight points result in the German league.
But Koln came out firing in the second half and drew one back through Christian Clemens 10 minutes after the restart, the 19-year-old midfielder charging down the left flank and scoring on a tight angle.
Slovenia international Milivoje Novakovic levelled the scores in the 62nd minute and then fired the winner 11 minutes later as Koln recorded just their sixth victory of the season.
Bayern drop to fifth on the table and now trail league leaders Borussia Dortmund by 15 points with 13 games left in the season.
Elsewhere, Mainz were held 1-1 at home by Werder Bremen, while Leverkusen fell 1-0 at Nurnberg.
Mainz went ahead early through prolific striker Andre Schurrle, who struck his 10th goal of the season in the 19th minute, but Peru international Claudio Pizarro pegged one back for Werder in injury time.
Leverkusen’s pursuit of Dortmund took a hit at Nurnberg, the second-placed side falling for just the fourth time this season on the back of Christian Eigler’s 60th-minute winner.
In other results, fourth-placed Hannover moved within goal difference of the Champions League places with a 1-0 win over Wolfsburg, with veteran midfielder Sergio Pinto finding the net in the fourth minute.
Hoffenheim saw off a determined Kaiserslautern 3-2 thanks to Edson Braafheid’s 79th-minute winner, having earlier seen their two-goal lead erased inside of three second-half minutes by Kaiserslautern pair Erwin Hoffer (58) and Rodnei (60).
Glyfi Sigurdhsson (28) and Sebastian Rudy (40) did the damage early for the hosts.
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