Werkself play out thrilling 3-3 draw in Freiburg

Kasper Hjulmand made two changes from the team that started Wednesday’s 1-0 win at Hamburg as Ezequiel Fernández and Ernest Poku came in for Exequiel Palacios and Montrell Culbreath. Striker Patrik Schick missed out with injury. Emmanuel Chigozie Owen from the U19s was in the senior squad for the first time. Leverkusen had the first effort of the afternoon when Kofane headed over Ibrahim Maza’s cross, before Terrier flashed a shot wide from range. Jan-Niklas Beste had Freiburg’s first opening in a lively start.

Kofane precision, Grimaldo free-kick

Further chances came and went for Grifo, Kofane and Fernández as Freiburg waited on the break and eventually struck when Grifo met Christian Günter’s cross and mishit his finish past Janis Blaswich. Kofane missed another opportunity to equalise but made no mistake shortly after when he picked out the bottom left corner from the edge of the box. The first-half action wasn’t done there as Suzuki restored Freiburg’s lead before Grimaldo’s excellent free-kick over the wall restored parity again on the stroke of half-time.

Terrier’s lead not enough

The second period saw Grimaldo pick up an early yellow card – his fifth of the campaign that rules him out of next week’s home game against Bayern Munich. But that didn’t hold back the Werkself, who carved out an excellent third goal in transition as Kofane played in Terrier, who finished on the angle with his left foot to finally put the visitors in front. Kofane could’ve got a fourth with a header saved by Noah Atubolu. Tim Oermann came on for Poku to make his Bundesliga debut in red and black, but he was unable to prevent Freiburg from hitting back again as Ginter met Derry Scherhant’s cross with four minutes to go. The defender thought he’d won it even later but was flagged offside as his side made it 16 games unbeaten at home in all competitions, but they remain 10 points behind Leverkusen.

Arsenal and Bayern to come

The Werkself have two home games to come next week, starting on Wednesday with Arsenal in the UEFA Champions League round of 16 first leg (18:45 CET), before Bayern come to the BayArena in the Bundesliga on Saturday (15:30).

Match stats:

Freiburg: Atubolo – Treu, Ginter, Ognus, Günter (Makengo 62') – Eggestein, Manzambi (Höler 75') – Beste (Irié 75'), Suzuki, Grifo (Scherhant 62') – Matanovic

Bayer 04: Blaswich – Quansah, Andrich, Tapsoba – Poku (Oermann 82'), Fernández (Palacios 82'), García, Maza (Tillman 66'), Grimaldo – Terrier (Culbreath 75'), Kofane

Goals: 1-0 Grifo (34'), 1-1 Kofane (37'), 2-1 Suzuki (43'), 2-2 Grimaldo (45'+3), 2-3 Terrier (52'), 3-3 Ginter (86')

Referee: Benjamin Brand

Yellow cards: Scherhant, Günter - Grimaldo, Quansah, Andrich

Attendance: 34,100 (sold out) at the Europa-Park Stadion