Patrik Schick tapped in a 76th-minute winner as Bayer Leverkusen came from behind to beat Freiburg 2-1 at the BayArena on Sunday, becoming the first player in the club's history to score in each of the first six matches of a Bundesliga season.
Freiburg did not arrive in Leverkusen looking like underdogs. Julian Schuster's side had taken a club-record 13 points from their opening five league games, were unbeaten in all competitions this season, and had already topped the table once this autumn with the ten-man win over Schalke that took them top. With Germany coach Jürgen Klopp watching from the stands, they struck first after 14 minutes: Philipp Treu won back possession, combined with Niklas Beste down the right, and Derry Scherhant rolled in the opener at the back post.
Maza answers within five minutes
The lead lasted barely five minutes. Moussa Diaby picked out Schick inside the box, the Czech forward rolled a pass into the path of the unmarked Ibrahim Maza, and the 20-year-old finished emphatically with the outside of his boot to make it 1-1. Schick later headed a free-kick against the post before an offside flag intervened, but a high-quality first half ended level. Leverkusen head coach Carles Martínez had made five changes from Thursday's 4-0 Europa League win at Lech Poznan, restoring Schick, Diaby and Jarell Quansah among others, and his side gradually took control after the break, with Schick blazing one big chance over the bar around the hour mark.
Schick seals it with a record sixth
The winner, on 76 minutes, was made by Maza and finished by history. Maza shook off three markers near the corner, dazzled his way along the byline and cut the ball back for Schick to tap home, as Reuters reported — a sixth league goal of the season for Leverkusen's leading scorer, one in every game Leverkusen have played. "It was a lot of fun, especially against such a strong opponent," Maza told DAZN afterwards. "Schicky and I are building some pretty good chemistry. The more time we spend playing together, the better it's getting." Freiburg pushed hard late on, with substitute Lucas Höler heading just off target with virtually the last action of the game, but a first defeat of the season was theirs. The hosts also won the expected-goals battle 1.39 to 0.81, according to the Bundesliga's official match report, and Schuster admitted his side had let it slip: "It was completely unnecessary that we lost and dropped points here today."
So what does it mean?
Leverkusen climb into the top four on 13 points, level with Freiburg but behind them on goal difference, and just one point behind Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund at the summit. After a shock opening-day defeat to promoted Elversberg, Martínez's side have now taken 13 points from the last 15 — and in Schick they have the Bundesliga's most reliable scorer, a striker producing a goal a game while Maza emerges as his perfect foil. For Freiburg, the timing of a first defeat is cruel: Bayern visit them next weekend, and the unbeaten aura that carried them through the opening weeks is gone a week before the ultimate test. How they respond to that, with Klopp's Germany call-ups in their ranks, will tell us whether this Freiburg start was a surge or the real thing.
Beyond the Final Whistle verdict: This felt like a changing-of-the-guard result in the early title race. Freiburg have been the story of the Bundesliga autumn, but Leverkusen beat them with patience, quality and one devastating partnership — Maza creating, Schick finishing, again and again. A striker scoring in six straight games to open a season is not a hot streak, it is a title-race weapon. Can Schick keep this record run going, and are Leverkusen now Bayern's biggest threat? Tell us in the comments.
