When the final whistle blew at the Europa-Park Stadion on Sunday evening, there was a palpable sense of frustration around the ground. SC Freiburg had come within touching distance of beating the still-reigning Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen after a tireless team performance, only to see a hard-earned victory slip away in the dying moments.

Following three consecutive wins, there was just one change to the starting XI, with Johan Manzambi replacing Lucas Höler, who missed out due to muscular issues. Leverkusen, whose hopes of catching Bayern at the top had become purely mathematical following the Munich side’s draw in Leipzig, rotated in three positions: Jeremie Frimpong, Piero Hincapie, and Aleix Garcia came in for Arthur, Robert Andrich, and Nathan Tella.

Evenly-matched start
“We need strong individual performances,” said Freiburg head coach Julian Schuster ahead of the game. “Intensity, strong in the duels. And we need our 12th man. The support in our last home game was incredible. We need that again.” And the fans duly responded, creating a ferocious atmosphere ahead of kick-off.

Buoyed by the crowd, the home side got stuck in from the outset against the league’s second-placed side. With the visitors assuming early control of possession, and both defences snuffing out any early attacks, the opening phase was well-balanced and lacking clear-cut chances.

Goals on either side of the half put Freiburg ahead
After a quiet first half hour, Freiburg grew into the game. Max Rosenfelder sent a headed effort narrowly over the crossbar in the 29th minute, before Patrick Osterhage passed up a golden opportunity moments later after being slipped through one-on-one against Kovar (35’). 

As the game approached half-time, momentum had clearly shifted in favour of the home side, spurred on by the vocal crowd. Their support was duly rewarded when a loose clearance fell to the feet of Maximilian Eggestein, 25 yards out, and the midfielder rocketed a thunderous strike into the bottom corner to give Freiburg a deserved 1-0 lead at the break (44’). 

The crowd was cheering again shortly after the restart. Manzambi started off the attack, picking out Ritsu Doan in the middle before charging into the box to head the ball into a threatening position – it was eventually forced over the line by Leverkusen defender Piero Hincapié (48’).

The timing of the goals couldn’t have been better. Not only did they unsettle Leverkusen, who struggled to create anything meaningful in the immediate aftermath, but they also inspired Freiburg to keep pressing at high intensity and force more mistakes from the visitors.

Late double blow denies the win
With 20 minutes left on the clock, Leverkusen had yet to register a single shot on target, largely thanks to Freiburg’s tireless defensive efforts. At the other end, the hosts passed up several opportunities to finish off the game on the counter, setting the game up for a nervy finale. 

Schuster’s XI threw their all into every challenge and loose ball to see out the two-goal lead. But their heroic efforts would go unrewarded. Florian Wirtz carried the ball through midfield and, seemingly out of nowhere, rifled in a long-range strike off the inside of the post to halve the deficit (82’). Jonathan Tah completed the comeback deep in stoppage time, rising to meet a cross with a powerful header – Bayer’s second shot on target (90+3’).

After the initial disappointment at the final whistle, the home crowd at Europa-Park Stadion was back on its feet, applauding the team’s efforts. Despite dropping two points, Freiburg’s European hopes are very much alive after securing a valuable point that sees them finish the matchday fourth in the table.

Freiburg travel to Holstein Kiel next Saturday (15:30 CEST) for the final away match of the season, before closing out the campaign at home to Eintracht Frankfurt the following week.