Nigerian striker, Victor Boniface, is the hero for Bayer Leverkusen after scoring the winning goal in extra time to complete a dramatic comeback in the DFB Pokal quarter-final clash against FC Cologne on Wednesday night.
The German champions found themselves 2-0 and had to dig deep before finally overcoming the visitors to book a spot in the last four and remain on the path to a successful title defence.
The first half looked set to end goalless when Damion Downs struck for the visitors 10 minutes into first-half stoppage time, before going from scorer to provider 10 minutes into the second half as Linton Maina doubled Cologne’s advantage.
Patrik Schick has been in good form during Boniface’s injury absence, and the forward maintained that form as he pulled one back for Leverkusen on the hour mark to spark hope of a comeback.
Cologne were seconds away from a big win when Schick grabbed his second to equalise for Leverkusen in the sixth minute of injury time and send the thrilling encounter to extra time.
It was in the first period of extra time that Boniface completed Leverkusen’s remarkable comeback, while Cologne had a goal ruled out in the second period of extra time as Leverkusen held on to book a semi-final place.