A first half drive from Leverkusen's veteran midfielder Simon Rolfes was enough to hand Bayer Leverkusen all three points on Saturday afternoon against a resilient Freiburg side. Rolfes, 33, who has announced that he will retire once the season ends, was on the end of Karim Bellarabi's cutback to power home past a helpless Roman Burki, and push Bayer back into the top four.
The home side began rapidly, aiming to dispel any evidence of fatigue following their midweek victory in the Champions League over Atlético Madrid. Despite exploiting the flanks, with full backs Wendell and Hilbert bombing up and down the wings in support of Son & Bellarabi, the end product was seemingly lacking.
Hilbert wasted the first chance of the game in the second minute, firing high and wide. 10 minutes later, South Korean attacker Son slipped through Stefan Kiessling, but the German spurned his chance to break the deadlock and it remained level.
The next chance came for Freiburg in the 29th minute, as Jonathan Schmid's dipping free-kick was well stopped by Bernd Leno, who seems to have come into an inspired purple patch of form recently. The resulting corner was well dealt with once again by Leno, but Freiburg had seemingly come into their own.
4 minutes later, however, they were one down, Bellarabi's clever cutback allowing for Rolfes to fire home his first of the season, and die Werkself led. The pressure didn't stop there, the effusive Son at the heart of things as usual. He forced Burki into a fantastic stop just before the break, as Bayer looked to double their advantage. At half time however, the score remained 1-0 to the hosts.
The fluid football returned in the second half, but it was not supplemented by a killer instinct, as Heung Min Son was guilty of missing several chances to put the game to bed. Brandt set up Kiessling late on, but again the final touch was off the mark, while Freiburg looked helpless offensively.
In the end, both sides almost settled for a 1-0, which lifted Leverkusen above Schalke into the top 4. Freiburg remain perilously close to relegation, occupying 19th position, but an emphatic victory could rise them all the way up to 12th.
Next up for Roger Schmidt's Leverkusen is a trip to Paderborn, another relegation candidate, while Christian Streich's Freiburg host form side Bremen on Matchday 24.