Bard Finne came off the bench to rescue a 1-1 draw for FC Koln as Bayer Leverkusen slipped up in their bid to secure automatic Champions League qualification.
Leverkusen dominated possession for much of the opening exchanges, but space was difficult to find for the visiting attackers and the best of their openings fell to Lars Bender, who hit a tame effort straight at Timo Horn from the edge of the box.
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The hosts improved as the first half progressed and could have been ahead had Bernd Leno not got a strong hand to Yuya Osako's shot at the end of a fine move.
However, they should have been behind when Dominic Maroh brought down Stefan Kiessling to gift Leverkusen a penalty.
Hakan Calhanoglu stepped up from 12 yards, but Horn guessed correctly to push the ball to safety as Koln reached the break on level terms.
Koln looked comfortable early in the second half until Leverkusen broke the deadlock through Julian Brandt, who exchanged passes with Karim Bellarabi on a clever run before firing his shot past Horn.
The hosts responded well to the setback, though, and they were unfortunate not to equalise when Anthony Ujah headed just wide of the post from a corner.
Leverkusen were unable to relieve the pressure in the closing stages, and Koln snatched a deserved draw when Finne converted from close range after a flicked header from Ujah.
Callum Mulvihill
