Bakker and Lunev debut in goalless draw with Freiburg

In the first friendly of the summer against the team from Freiburg, head coach Gerardo Seoane fielded a new signing in his starting line-up: Mitchel Bakker,who joined Bayer 04 from Paris Saint-Germain two weeks ago, started in his usual position of left-back. Panagiotis Retsos returning from loan and young striker Emrehan Gedikli were also in the starting eleven. Lucas Alario sat out the friendly as a precaution.

Led out by Julian Baumgartlinger, who wore the captain's armband on the afternoon, the Werkself played in their new home kit at the Gernot Langes Stadium in Wattens. Head coach Seoane started with a 4-2-3-1 formation.

clear-cut chances for Bellarabi and Wirtz 

With temperatures around 30 degrees centigrade in Wattens, the first decent chance fell to Freiburg but Baumgartlinger was able to deflect Nishan Burkart's effort away for a corner (8'). The Werkself had the best chance of the first half after a perfectly executed move: Goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky quickly threw the ball out in the direction of Florian Wirtz. The 18-year-old put Karim Bellarabi through on the right, he dummied his opponent and then shot with his left foot – but the SCF keeper Mark Flekken was able to make the save (24').

The Seoane team were able to dominate the ball and opposition in the following minutes with Kerem Demirbay putting a free kick from 20 metres out just wide of the right upright (28'). The spectators at the Gernot Langes Stadium were then treated to youngster Wirtz leaving three opponents standing thanks to his inimitable ball control. However, our number 27 was unable to beat Freiburg keeper Flekken who turned the ball away from goal. With an impressive reflex save from Hradecky, who kept out a Niko Schlotterbeck shot from close range (41'), the Bundesliga teams went into half-time with the score at 0-0.

Lunev in goal, Youngsters debut with first team

Bayer 04 started the second half with keeper Andrey Lunev making his first appearance in a Werkself shirt and Daley Sinkgraven in holding midfield. Bellarabi had the first goalscoring opportunity after three minutes but Flekken was again on hand (48’). The next clear-cut chance came at the end of a perfectly executed counter-attack from the Werkself: Jeremie Frimpong and Moussa Diaby beat their opponents but a Freiburg leg intervened at the last moment when the Frenchman unleashed his shot (57').

Seoane rang the changes just after the hour mark with youngsters Zidan Sertdemir, Noah Pesch and Joshua Eze making their debuts with the first team as did Ayman Aourir and Sadik Fofana. The game then entered a quiet phase with the exception of a deflected shot from Diaby against the woodwork (74') before the closing stages brought two highlights. First, the Freiburg substitute Roland Sallai hit the crossbar (88') and shortly after that a headed goal from Jonathan Tah from a Demirbay free kick was ruled offside (90'). It was a very good first test for the Werkself in spite of the goalless scoreline.

Next friendly in Leverkusen

The next friendly for the Seoane team is on Wednesday, 28 July. The Dutch first division team FC Utrecht are the visitors in Leverkusen at 16.00 CEST.

Match stats:

Bayer 04: Hradecky (Lunev 46’) – Frimpong (Weiser 63’), Tah, Retsos (Fofana 81’), Bakker (Eze 63’) – Baumgartlinger (Sinkgraven 46’), Demirbay – Bellarabi (Pesch 63’), Wirtz (Sertdemir 63’), Diaby – Gedikli (Aourir 81’)

Freiburg: Flekken (Uphoff 46’) – Lienhart (N. Schlotterbeck 30’), Gulde (Sildillia 63’), Heintz – Kübler (Jeong 63’), Santamaria (Haberer 46’), Höfler (Keitel 46’), Günter (Schmid 30’) – Grifo (Weißhaupt 63’), Höler (Sallai 63’), Burkart (Demirovic 30’)