Great solo and great template
Fantastic Wirtz leads Bayer back to the top of the table
October 29, 2023, 7:25 p.m
Florian Wirtz again and again: It’s a pleasure to watch the young national player play football. With an impressive solo, he puts Bayer Leverkusen in the lead and also initiates Jonas Hofmann’s second goal. But Freiburg never gives up and keeps the game exciting until the final whistle.
Florian Wirtz helped coach Xabi Alonso to a successful anniversary with a magic goal in the style of Lionel Messi and Bayer Leverkusen to a direct return to the top of the table. The 20-year-old national player broke the spell in the 2-1 (1-0) win against the fiercely defending SC Freiburg after an almost unbelievable dribbling performance with 14 ball contacts (36th). He did the preparatory work for Jonas Hofmann’s 2-0 goal (60′). Wirtz was even involved in four goals in the 5-1 win against Karabakh Agdam in the Europa League on Thursday.
By winning the 50th competitive game under Alonso, Leverkusen took back the top position from FC Bayern Munich after one night. The 25 points and 27:8 goals that the Werkself now have in the statistics have only been exceeded once in 60 years of the Bundesliga after nine match days: In the 2015/16 season, Bayern under coach Pep Guardiola had nine wins and therefore 27 Counters started.
“We’re super happy because we have the three points. It might not feel so nice at the back, but it’s never easy against Freiburg. We made the game exciting again,” said goalscorer Hofmann at DAZN. “Our plan was to defend well. But you can’t defend everything against them, they are in a very good mood,” said Freiburg’s Vincenzo Grifo: “We came back again in the second half.”
Frustrating statistics for Freiburg
For Freiburg’s coach Christian Streich, a frustrating statistic was confirmed despite Manuel Gulde’s goal (70th): in his twelfth game with SC against a league leader, he lost for the twelfth time. And currently Freiburg, who like Leverkusen play in the Europa League, had to lose contact with the European Cup places.
The SC won 3-1 at Backa Topol in Serbia during the week, but suffered two injuries in Maximilian Philipp and Roland Sallai. Streich seemed correspondingly skeptical before the game and a look at Leverkusen’s line-up reinforced this skepticism. “I just need to look at who is sitting on the bench at Leverkusen,” he said on DAZN: “You don’t need to look on the pitch anymore. You already know everything.”
And the Leverkusen team did everything they could to ensure that the Freiburg team didn’t lose respect. Granit Xhaka narrowly missed making it 1-0 after just 47 seconds. As a result, the hosts Freiburg narrowed down around their own penalty area. But the Breisgauers, from whom Streich had demanded an “extremely high tolerance for frustration”, ran diligently and disciplinedly into the spaces, and whenever possible all SC players were behind the ball. AS Roma had recently defended in Leverkusen, at the behest of Coach José Mourinho in the 0-0 draw in the Europa League semi-finals in May.
Leverkusen vulnerable to set pieces
Streich, as usual, was emotional on the sidelines and always cheered and applauded when a Freiburg leg blocked a supposedly dangerous shot. Despite an incredible 82 percent ball possession, 7-0 corners and 9-1 shots on goal, Bayer didn’t have a really good chance to score until the 35th minute. Until Wirtz had enough: In the tightest space, he hit several players in the penalty area and shot with his left foot into the far corner from seven meters.
Despite the deficit, Freiburg initially remained deep after the break, whether voluntarily or involuntarily remained an open question. After an hour, Wirtz again used an outstanding dribble, lost the ball, regained it and fed Hofmann. His shot hit the post and off goalkeeper Noah Atubolu’s back into the net. Jeremie Frimpong hit the post six minutes later after a strong solo and later Wirtz also hit the crossbar (74′). Because Leverkusen is still so vulnerable in standard situations, Freiburg came back into the game with Gulde’s header from a free kick from Vincenzo Grifo.