Bayer Leverkusen salvages point vs. Roma in back-and-forth contest

Bayer Leverkusen gave up an early 2-0 lead and allowed four unanswered goals before a comeback of its own to claim a point from Tuesday's topsy-turvy 4-4 draw against Roma in the Champions League.

Roma midfielder Daniele De Rossi, coming off his 500th appearance for the Giallorossi, scored twice to erase a 2-0 first-half deficit, while Miralem Pjanic pushed them ahead in the second frame with a beautiful curling free-kick.

Substitute Iago Falque slotted in what appeared to be an insurance marker with just over a quarter of an hour to go, but goals from Kevin Kampl and Admir Mehmedi within the last 10 minutes secured the tie.

Related: Leverkusen scores twice in 2 minutes to claw back in wild match vs. Roma

The draw does little to help Roma, which remains in the basement of Group E with a measly two points from three matches.

De Rossi, who called it a "mini knockout game," capitalized on two set pieces with sharp finishes inside the penalty area to cancel out the first two goals by Leverkusen's Javier Hernandez.

Pjanic supplied the cross on the second goal, and the Bosnian added a third with his fourth free-kick goal of the season.

Related - VIDEO: Pjanic strikes another perfect free-kick vs. Bayer Leverkusen

It looked like Roma would finally claim a win in Europe after failing to complete a similar comeback in a 3-2 loss at BATE Borisov three weeks ago. The Giallorossi did score the necessary goals this time to fight its way back into the match, but couldn't hold its first lead of the 2015-16 Champions League campaign against a gutsy Leverkusen side with lots of firepower.

For all of its spirit, battling through injuries to key players like Edin Dzeko, Roma simply hasn't done a good enough job defending. It's allowed six goals in the first half of its Champions League games so far, putting them into a hole every time, forcing them to scramble for any kind of result.

"Our problem is that we only react, we don’t take the initiative or command from the start," Pjanic told Mediaset, as translated by Football Italia, after the contest. "We shouldn’t have allowed a comeback like that. We dropped two points."

The same thing happened in Germany. Roma now needs a win against the Germans in the reverse fixture, or risk missing the knockout stage for the second year in a row.

Leverkusen, on the other hand, maintains its spot in second place with just four points.