The Nigerian born Austria International, Junior Adamu Chukwubuike’s impressive performance could not help Freiburg SC from a 2-0 away defeat to Bayern Leverkusen at the BayArena.
The 23-year-old footballer, born on 6 June 2001 in Nigeria, played 46-minutes in the game before being replaced by Yuito Suzuki in a tactical decision by Coach Julian Schuster.
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Bayer Leverkusen notched up a fourth-consecutive Bundesliga win under coach Kasper Hjulmand, with the Werkself seeing off the 10 men of Freiburg thanks to goals from Ernest Poku and Edmond Tapsoba.
The hosts needed a response after suffering a heavy 7-2 defeat to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League, and they delivered exactly that against Freiburg at the BayArena.
Aware of their status as the third-highest scorers in the Bundesliga prior to this encounter, Bayer 04 were keen to test that firepower against a Freiburg side who were unbeaten in five previous league games and buoyed by Thursday’s UEFA Europa League win over Utrecht.
The visitors started confidently with Derry Scherhant testing Mark Flekken early on, cutting inside from the left before firing a shot that the Leverkusen goalkeeper saved.
Junior Adamu also came close after intercepting a loose pass from Ezequiel Fernández, but again Flekken was equal to the effort.
Leverkusen gradually grew into the game, with Alejandro Grimaldo testing Noah Atubolu from a free-kick after Philipp Lienhart’s foul had earned him the first of waht would eventually be two yellow cards.
Freiburg’s task became even harder in the 74th minute when Lienhart committed a late challenge on substitute Ibrahim Maza and received his second yellow. With the numerical advantage, Leverkusen controlled possession for the remainder of the match as they rose up to fourth spot in the standngs.
They also extended their recent dominance over Freiburg, with four wins and two draws from their last six matches against today’s opponents. It has now been over three years since Freiburg’s last win, which took place at BayArena in September 2022.
