Bayern Munich’s perfect Bundesliga start came to a screeching halt when they drew 1-1 with visiting Cologne yesterday after winning their first five matches of the season.

The Bavarians, who lost to Atletico Madrid in the Champions League in midweek, hit the woodwork three times and controlled the game but failed to make their dominance count, with Cologne protecting their undefeated run this season.

Bayern struggled against the hard-working Cologne defenders for 40 minutes before Joshua Kimmich dived to head in a beautiful Juan Bernat cross for the lead.

Thomas Mueller came close to adding another four minutes after the restart as did Robert Lewan-dowski, with Bayern keeping up the pressure and looking to kill off the game.

But it was Cologne who scored when striker Anthony Modeste timed his run to perfection, taking off inside the box to volley a cross into the back of Manuel Neuer’s goal for his fifth goal of the campaign.

The hosts were left stunned for a few minutes with Cologne trying to hit them again on the counter-attack and Yuya Osako’s effort was ruled out for offside.

Cologne goalkeeper Timo Horn made the save of the day when he punched a point-blank Mueller volley on to the crossbar and the Bavarians also hit the woodwork with a powerful low drive by Bernat five minutes from time.

The last big chance fell to the visitors, however, with Simon Zoller coming agonisingly close to a stoppage-time winner as his shot rolled just wide of the post.

Bayern moved up to 16 points, with Hertha Berlin second on 13, after easing past Hamburg 2-0 and Borussia Dortmund going down 2-0 to Bayer Leverkusen.

In another match, Freiburg narrowed the gap on Eintracht Frankfurt with a 1-0 win over the Eagles.

Vincenzo Grifo scored the only goal of the game after only three minutes, sweeping his shot into the far corner of Lukas Hradecky’s goal.

A Mike Frantz effort struck the crossbar early in the second half before Alexander Meier wasted a good chance to equalise.

Freiburg had to defend but managed to hold firm for their third win of the season, taking them closer to the top three than they are to the bottom three.

Bundesliga
Bayern Munich vs Cologne - 1-1
B. L’rkusen vs B. Dortmund - 2-0
Darmstadt vs Werder Bremen - 2-2
Freiburg vs E. Frankfurt - 1-0
Hertha Berlin vs Hamburg - 2-0
Ingolstadt vs Hoffenheim - 1-2

Playing today
Wolfsburg vs Mainz - 15.30
Schalke vs B. Mgladbach - 17.30