The football coach Christian Streich is never calm at SC Freiburg games. This time he seemed to be a little more restless and brooding than usual. He knew what awaited him: an opponent with irresistible playing skills who asked the question whether he was good at the moment be on it, with “Yessssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssseringeringeringering out where time” in “Jaaaaa!!” would answer. Streich was not mistaken: Bayer Leverkusen picked up where they left off on Thursday with a 5-1 win against Quarabag Agdam. Dominance is a weak word for the oppressive Leverkusen superiority, the sports club countered the onslaught with hedgehog tactics.
However, it didn’t end as one-sided as the game had been for more than an hour. At the final whistle, the Bayer supporters breathed a sigh of relief that it was enough for their team to win 2-1 (1-0) and maintain their lead in the table ahead of FC Bayern.
Late, but not too late, after Manuel Gulde’s goal (70th minute), the Freiburg team expressed their ambition to do more than limit the damage. Streich had also long since given up his concerns; referee Daniel Siebert acknowledged one of his legendary fits of rage after a denied free kick with a yellow card. However, there can be no doubt that Bayer 04 were the legitimate winners. Neither was the fact that Florian Wirtz was the outstanding man on the pitch as the goalscorer (36th) and preparer of the 2-0 – a co-production by Jonas Hofmann and Freiburg goalkeeper Noah Atubolo (60th).
Freiburg’s radical no-play concept worked until the 36th minute. The concrete in the defensive bulwark became firmer from minute to minute, but not much changed in the forward game – there was just as little forward progress as before. Leverkusen’s ball possession rate was 82 percent, but significant shots on goal were rarely achieved. Bayer combined in Spanish style in tiny spaces, let the ball spin and repeatedly got into the penalty area, but the compactly defending Freiburg team refused to finish in the last resort. Until Wirtz started a solo that Lionel Messi would have liked. If he was sitting in front of the TV in Miami, he may have thought he was looking in the mirror.
When the ball was finally in the net, it wasn’t just a beautiful goal to celebrate. One also had to worry about Nicolas Höfler, who may have suffered several dizzy spells from the goalscorer during his power dribbling. The 20-year-old Bayer playmaker had 14 ball contacts – five more than Cologne center forward Davie Selke had in the entire game on Saturday – before the path to a shot on goal was clear.
Wirtz delivers further spectacular scenes
This 1-0 also marked the half-time score, and the question was whether Freiburg would relax the strictly ordered defensive position a little. At first, however, little changed. Bayer played, Freiburg defended. Corner ratio after 58 minutes: 10:0. But the anniversary corner kick was also defused by the Freiburg team.
Wirtz had to intervene again. The next energetic solo run ended in the legs of a defender, but Wirtz successfully followed up, fed Hofmann – and his shot against the post bounced against Atubolo’s back and over the goal line.
At that point it seemed impossible that this game would be exciting again. Before they had fought for their final offensive, the Freiburg team still had to overcome a few tricky moments. Of course, Wirtz provided the most spectacular scene with a shot against the crossbar, and Frimpong also completed a solo effort with a hit on the post. But in the end it was Xabi Alonso who showed the referee his watch to politely but firmly point out that it should finally be over.