Schick and Maza trade goals and assists as Leverkusen rallies past Freiburg

Freiburg jumped ahead early at the BayArena, but it wasn't enough to hold off Bayer Leverkusen. Derry Scherhant put the visitors in front in the 13th minute with a left-footed strike from the middle of the box, and just five minutes later Ibrahim Maza leveled things with a right-footed shot set up by Patrik Schick. The score stayed tied well into the second half, until Schick himself, this time on the finishing end, sealed the 2-1 in the 75th minute with a right-footed finish down the middle of the goal, once again assisted by Maza. The two swapped roles between scorer and provider, and together they settled the match for Carles Martinez's side.

The opening stretch was a back-and-forth affair. Freiburg, managed by Julian Schuster, broke through with a well-worked move down the left from Philipp Treu, which Scherhant finished low, just inside the post. Leverkusen wasted no time responding: Maza popped up in the box to tap in a ball served by Schick, leveling the score at 1-1 before the half-hour mark.

With the game tied, both sides had their moments without either managing to tilt it their way. Patrik Schick came close to putting his team ahead before halftime with a header off a corner that grazed the crossbar, and Freiburg answered with attempts from Igor Matanovic that failed to find the target. At the break, it was 1-1, with the sense that the match remained very much open.

The Second Half and the Final Blow

The second half followed much the same pattern: shots came from both ends, but a second goal didn't arrive right away. Maximilian Eggestein and Afonso Moreira each tried their luck from outside the box in the same sequence, testing the goalkeepers without success. Leverkusen brought on fresh legs (Nathan Tella and Malik Tillman entered in the second half) looking to create problems out wide, while Freiburg turned to its bench with Lukas Kubler, Lucas Holer and, later, Cyriaque Irie and Patrick Osterhage.

The decisive moment came in the 75th minute: Maza returned the favor to Schick with a pass that the Czech striker finished with his right foot, tight angle but enough of the goal to work with, for the final 2-1. Freiburg pushed until the end, with Irie and Osterhage trying their luck from distance, but couldn't force an equalizer even in stoppage time, when Schick still had a shot that was saved.

What the Numbers Say

Freiburg controlled the ball somewhat more and finished with more total passes, but Leverkusen was sharper in front of goal.

According to our estimate based on the match's shots, Leverkusen generated 1.814 expected goals against 1.257 for Freiburg, a gap that lines up with the home side's edge in shots on target (5 to 2) and backs up, without overstating it, the final result.

Our preview had given Leverkusen a 57% chance of winning, against 20% for Freiburg and 23% for a draw, with expected goals of 2.12 for the home side and 1.21 for the visitors, for a total of 3.34. The final 2-1 scoreline landed fairly close to that projection: the favorite won, even if the path there included the early jolt of Scherhant's goal, which wasn't part of the most likely script.

What It Means in the Standings

Before this match, Freiburg sat in third place with 13 points and Leverkusen was fourth, also with 13, meaning they arrived level on points with nothing separating them. The win gives Bayer Leverkusen a strong case for climbing further into that upper tier of the Bundesliga, while Freiburg will have to shake off a defeat that snaps a run that had them battling near the top of the table.