Robin Dutt returned to his Freiburg roots to pick up three important points for
his current club Bayer Leverkusen and leave his former employers rooted to the
foot of the Bundesliga table.
• Freiburg 0-1 Leverkusen
Michael Ballack's goal in the second minute was enough to decide the game in
Leverkusen's favour and lift them up to eighth in the table ahead of the rest of
the weekend's matches.
Leverkusen manifested a clear superiority throughout without ever exaggerating
as Dutt picked up the points which ease the pressure on him, but only increase
the burden on his successor on the Freiburg bench, Marcus Sorg.
It took Leverkusen just two minutes to open the scoring at the Dreisamstadion,
with Ballack netting for the first time in the Bundesliga this season. He was picked out by Manuel Friedrich's header and the former Germany captain made no mistake with a right-footed shot from close range.
Gonzalo Castro almost made it two moments later, but Oliver Baumann clasped the ball at the second attempt. Fears that Leverkusen were going to run away with the game failed to
materialise, though, and the home side settled down after a dramatic opening
five minutes and started testing Bernd Leno in the Leverkusen goal.
He made a couple of unsteady saves, but Leverkusen were never really in danger of letting their lead slip in the first half. And they looked even less likely to concede in the second half as they took the sting out of Freiburg's attack and controlled proceedings, albeit without creating any danger of their own.
They almost let the points slip when Stefan Reisinger's shot on the turn was pushed behind for a corner by Leno in the 86th minute. Yet the home side were unable to find a way through in the closing stages as Leverkusen shut up shop to preserve their points.
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