Felix Klaus (l.) netted a late winner as SC Freiburg got the better of Bayer 04 Leverkusen, coming from behind twice to win 3-2
Felix Klaus (l.) netted a late winner as SC Freiburg got the better of Bayer 04 Leverkusen, coming from behind twice to win 3-2

Fearless Freiburg fight back twice for Leverkusen scalp

xwhatsappmailcopy-link

Freiburg - SC Freiburg came from behind twice to snatch a 3-2 win over Bayer 04 Leverkusen and move out of the bottom three in dramatic fashion.

Leverkusen dictating

Lars Bender gave Leverkusen an early lead before Admir Mehmedi levelled. Simon Rolfes restored the visitors' advantage before the break, but a deflected Jonathan Schmid free-kick brought the hosts back on terms for the second time. Felix Klaus then popped up to snatch victory in the last minute for Christian Streich's men .

Bernd Leno was tested first, with Mehmedi's effort from outside the penalty area smothered by the Leverkusen goalkeeper, who watched from the other end of the pitch as Oliver Baumann was unable to prevent Lars Bender's long-range effort finding the bottom corner.

It could have been two shortly after when Oliver Sorg got robbed of possession in midfield and Heung Min Son was put through on goal. The South Korea Player of the Year for 2013 took the ball round Baumann, albeit too wide of goal to attempt a shot. Instead, he tucked the ball back to Emre Can, whose curling effort cannoned back into play off the crossbar. Leverkusen were clearly in the ascendency and a Gonzalo Castro corner was headed straight into the arms of Baumann by Kießling, who would have been celebrating his tenth goal of the season with a bit more direction.

Glut of goals


Freiburg hit back and things opened up just enough in front of Mehmedi for him to see a chink of light in the top right-hand corner of Leno's goal, and he made no mistake. Freiburg's joy was short-lived, however, with Baumann just getting his fingertips to a Castro effort and conceding a corner. From Castro's cross, Rolfes rose at the near post to head Leverkusen back in front.

Parity was restored early in the second half when Schmid's curling free-kick got the slightest of deflections off the head of Kießling, perhaps doing enough to prevent Leno from reaching the ball. The Leverkusen forward tried to make amends, but was denied by Baumann, who then pushed a Castro effort over the crossbar as Leverkusen tried to hit back once again.

Both keen to win it


Freiburg were not having any of it, though, and they kept the Leverkusen defence equally busy as the game opened up. Stefan Reinartz stopped Vladimir Darida from having a clear run on Leno's goal while Mehmedi unselfishly tried to tee up his strike partner when perhaps he could have gone for goal himself.

Son flashed a shot wide of Baumann's goal with Castro doing the same to the other side as the chances rained down at both ends of the field. Seung-Woo Ryu was sent on to make his Leverkusen debut, replacing compatriot Son, but it was not a debut he will look back on fondly as Schmid raced away in the last minute to send in a cross for Klaus to net and bring the house down at the MAGE Solar Stadion.


Line-ups and statistics