Freiburg vs. Bayer Leverkusen preview: Hosts looking to continue impressive home record

Freiburg will be looking to continue their impressive home form when they welcome Bayer Leverkusen to Europa-Park Stadion on Saturday.

Freiburg

Freiburg are sitting in eighth spot in the Bundesliga table after winning nine, drawing six and losing nine of their 24 matches this season. The Breisgau-Brasilianer failed to take anything from their recent clash against Eintracht Frankfurt at Deutsche Bank Park. Farès Chaïbi and Jean-Mattéo Bahoya grabbed a goal apiece to condemn Freiburg to a 2-0 defeat, their fourth loss in five away matches (D1).

Julian Schuster will be looking forward to returning to Europa-Park Stadion, where they have avoided defeat in each of their last 15 competitive home games since losing to Augsburg on the opening day of the season. In fact, Freiburg have won each of their previous five matches at Europa-Park Stadion, including three successive home league wins against FC Köln, Werder Bremen and Borussia Mönchengladbach. 

Freiburg will be hoping that home advantage can help fire them to their first victory over Leverkusen since claiming a 3-2 away win in September 2022. 

Team News

The hosts are unable to call upon the services of Max Rosenfelder and Lukas Kübler. Meanwhile, Jan-Niklas Beste and Johan Manzambi will return from suspension. 

Predicted lineup: Atubolu; Treu, Ginter, Ogbus, Günter; Eggestein, Manzambi; Beste, Suzuki, Scherhant; Matanović

Bayer Leverkusen

Leverkusen are sitting in sixth spot and three points adrift of the top four after winning 13, drawing four and losing seven of their 24 Bundesliga matches. They followed a 1-1 draw in last Saturday’s home clash against Mainz 05 with a narrow win in their rescheduled clash against Hamburg on Wednesday. Christian Kofane netted a 73rd-minute winner to fire die Werkself to victory at the Volksparkstadion. Not only would they have been pleased with the three points, but Leverkusen would have also been delighted to claim their first Bundesliga away clean sheet of the season.

After claiming their sixth away league win of the season, Kasper Hjulmand’s side will be targeting more success on the road in Saturday’s clash with Freiburg. Die Werkself have won four of their previous five head-to-head encounters, including a 2-0 victory in October’s reverse fixture at the BayArena. They have also scored two or more goals in seven of their last eight meetings with the Breisgau-Brasilianer.

Team News

Leverkusen’s absentee list is made up of Mark Flekken, Lucas Vázquez, Loïc Badé, Arthur, Eliesse Ben Seghir and Nathan Tella. 

Meanwhile, forward Patrik Schick remains a doubt after missing the recent win over Hamburg through injury. 

Predicted lineup: Blaswich; Quansah, Andrich, Tapsoba; Culbreath, Fernández, García, Grimaldo; Maza, Poku; Kofane