BERLIN, May 9 (Xinhua) -- Freiburg returned to winning ways and increased Cologne's relegation worries following a 4-1 victory at the closer of the Bundesliga's 32nd round on Sunday.
After back-to-back wins in the league, the hosts had the worst possible start as Nils Petersen picked up Ellyes Skhiri's return pass before slotting past hapless Cologne goalkeeper Timo Horn in the 18th minute.
To make things worse for the Billy Goats, Ermedin Demirovic doubled Freiburg's lead only two minutes later after tapping home Vincenzo Grifo's cutback pass.
Roland Sallai should have made it three before half-time, but Horn kept his side alive after winning a crucial one-on-one.
Cologne started bright into the second half and halved the deficit with 50 minutes played when substitute Ismail Jakobs crossed into the path of Sebastian Andersson, who made no mistake from very close range.
Freiburg handed over control while Cologne squandered a golden chance to level the scores as Ondrej Duda slipped before ballooning his penalty over the bar at the hour mark.
In the closing stages, both sides traded attacks as Horn neutralized Nicolas Hofler's shot on target while Jan Thielmann's 2-2 equalizer was disallowed due to a handball.
Cologne started an onslaught on Freiburg's goal but the hosts got caught flat-footed twice, as Grifo made it 3-1 in injury-time before Jonathan Schmid finished off another counterattack in the dying seconds.
With the result, Cologne suffered a setback in the relegation battle after slipping to 17th and a direct relegation spot. Meanwhile, ninth-placed Freiburg reduced the arrears to the UEFA Europa League spots to just two points.
Elsewhere, Eintracht Frankfurt lost its fourth place in the standings to rivals Borussia Dortmund after sharing the spoils with Mainz following a 1-1 draw, and newly-promoted Arminia Bielefeld held Hertha Berlin to a goalless stalemate. Enditem
