On Sunday, the SC Freiburg stadium newspaper showed an expectantly smiling Lucas Höler on its cover. With his arms spread wide, the striker looked happily into the distance, but with a somewhat questioning look. Headline: “Are you ready?”
After 85 seconds of play, the question had to be answered with a clear “no” from Freiburg’s perspective, because Florian Wirtz scored to make it 1-0 for Leverkusen (2nd). And thanks to its technology – of course – in a spectacular way. But “indefensible”, as SC coach Christian Streich had judged Wirtz’s goal in the first leg, when even six Freiburg defensive players had been unable to do anything against the 20-year-old – no, this 0-1 defeat in the second half of the season was not such a force of nature . First Matthias Ginter and then Nicolas Höfler were too indecisive in the “shot feint” (Wirtz over Wirtz).
Freiburg also has a Wirtz moment – but SC goalkeeper Atubolu makes a mistake
After the 5-0 defeat at West Ham United on Thursday, with which a sometimes defensively amateurish SC did not find a fitting end to a very pleasing Europa League season, this beginning seemed to fit into the picture quite well. But instead of slipping into a similar cascade of conceding goals as in London, the sports club fought back, skilfully condensed the spaces and played good football, especially in the first half. In the end, however, Leverkusen still won 3-2.
Ritsu Doan’s 1-1 equalizer after fluid dribbling and a powerful shot (14th) was almost something like a Freiburg Wirtz moment. The fact that the guests went into the break with a lead had less to do with Leverkusen’s offensive brilliance than with Freiburg goalkeeper Noah Atubolu. The 21-year-old was guilty of a serious breach of goalkeeping ethos when he showed fear for his own body. Instead of charging at Patrik Schick head and arms first, which would have brought him the ball as a reward, he went into the duel foot first. Adam Hlozek pushed in the ball, which was no longer controllable, to make it 2-1.
It was a well-deserved lead, even though Leverkusen hadn’t had so many of the moments that make football fans so often rave these days when they talk about the designated champions. Bayer didn’t play completely well on Sunday, and there were a lot of unusual bad passes in the game. And, yes, at times the usual Leverkusen pace was a little lacking. But on the one hand it wasn’t that noticeable because Freiburg didn’t power through 90 minutes. And on the other hand, the drop in energy was explainable, after all both teams had played exhausting international matches on Thursday.
Chic meets chic – “If you’re at the top, the ball hits the post twice and from there into the goal”
After all: When Schick scored to make it 3-1 after the break, it was proof of the team’s “great individual class”, which was also cited by SC coach Christian Streich: The Czech allowed a beautiful cross from Jeremie Frimpong to drip off his left foot – and he was in (53.). “Excellently done,” said Freiburg’s Vincenzo Grifo. “But if you’re up there, the ball hits the post twice and from there into the goal.” Schick also admitted that, but he thought the win was deserved: “We had the game under control until the 80th minute, then unfortunately they scored another goal.” That’s how sports director Simon Rolfes saw it: “We clearly dominated the game in the second half and had the better chances.” Streich, meanwhile, complained that “all 50:50 decisions for Leverkusen were whistled.”
In the second half, which Rolfes was not the only one to judge as Leverkusen’s better half, Alejandro Grimaldo (58th) and Granit Xhaka (87th) had further chances. But it got close again when Freiburg reduced the score to 2:3 through Yannik Keitel (79th), after Atubolu’s Leverkusen counterpart Lukas Hradecky also made a little mistake. In the end it was the Werkself’s 22nd win of the season – and thus a ten-point lead over FC Bayern, who Lucas Höler had described in the inside section of the stadium booklet as the “best team in Germany”.
However, that is probably what he meant in principle, as the quintessence of the last decades. After the game, no one in the Freiburg camp wanted to deny that Leverkusen would be a worthy champion.