Bayer Leverkusen 1 - 0 SC Freiburg - Leverkusen edge out Freiburg

Posted Sunday, March 01, 2015 by PA

Bayer Leverkusen built on their midweek Champions League win over Atletico Madrid by beating struggling Freiburg 1-0 at the BayArena.

Simon Rolfes scored the only goal of the game as Roger Schmidt's men got back to winning ways to move above both Augsburg and Schalke into fourth place.

Defeat saw Freiburg slip into the bottom two, where they join Baden-Wurttemberg rivals Stuttgart for at least the next seven days.

Stefan Kiessling was recalled to the Leverkusen starting XI after starting their last two games on the bench while Admir Mehmedi returned for Freiburg after injury.

The Swiss forward was unable to make much of an impression, though, as Leverkusen dictated affairs with Son Heung-min proving to be a handful early on.

The first real chance did come to a Freiburg player, though, with Jonathan Schmid's free-kick saved well by Bernd Leno.

Another great save from Leno denied Felix Klaus' free-kick moments later and those two scares seemed to serve as a warning to Leverkusen, who took the lead in the 33rd minute.

Karim Bellarabi sent across in from the right and Roman Burki flapped at it, pushing the ball down for Rolfes to net his first goal of the season from near the penalty spot.

Burki made amends by denying Son just before the interval and then saving from Hakan Calhanoglu's free-kick, but his side were still behind at the break.

Son saw an early shot in the second half blocked, but the midweek game against Atletico slowly started to take its toll on the Leverkusen players.

Freiburg did not look capable of taking advantage, though, rarely putting Leno under any pressure as Leverkusen held on to their narrow advantage and three important points.