A spectacular goal from Socceroos young gun Ajdin Hrustic has earned his Bundesliga side Eintracht Frankfurt a 1-1 draw with resurgent Mainz which has left them behind Borussia Dortmund in the battle for the fourth and final Champions League spot.
Second-bottom Cologne remain in an automatic relegation place with just two games to go after their 4-1 home defeat to Freiburg.
Cologne's only consolation was that relegation rivals Hertha Berlin and Arminia Bielefeld drew 0-0 in the day's late game.
Along with Werder Bremen, they both sit two points above Cologne with Bielefeld in the play-off spot.
Hertha have a game in hand.
The biggest incident of a dull encounter was Hertha goalkeeping coach Ilja Hofstaedt rupturing his achilles during the warm-up.
Mainz in 12th took the lead against Eintracht with Karim Onisiwo's opportunistic strike on 11 minutes in the local derby.
The hosts managed to find the leveller four minutes from time, with Hrustic flicking the ball high into the net despite lying on the ground.
Unbeaeten in nine games, Mainz are 12th and five points clear of the drop zone while Eintracht are fifth, a point behind Dortmund.
In the early game, dreadful Cologne defending allowed Nils Petersen to open the scoring on 18 minutes and soon after Ermedin Demirovic prodded in Freiburg's second while almost on the line.
A clever finish from Sebastian Andersson put Cologne back in the game early in the second period and the hosts were then awarded a dubious penalty. But Ondrej Duda slipped as he took the kick and sent the ball way over the bar.
A late Cologne goal was also ruled out for a debatable handball before Freiburg's Vincenzo Grifo made it 3-1 in stoppage time and Jonathan Schmid added a fourth as Cologne threw caution to the wind.
With bottom side Schalke already down, the dogfight to avoid the second automatic spot and the relegation play-off place looks like it could go down to the wire.
Australian Associated Press
