Bayern Leverkusen rebounded from their big 7-2 Champions League defeat against Paris Saint-Germain with a 2-0 Bundesliga victory over 10-man Freiburg on Sunday.
Ernest Poku in the 22nd and Edmond Tapsoba in the 52nd were on target for Leverkusen who are unbeaten in seven league matches and have won the last four.
Leverkusen are fifth, seven points behind leaders Bayern Munich who have won all their eight matches.
Freiburg, who had Philipp Lienhart sent off in the 74th, are 11th as their run of eight games without defeat across all competitions came to an end.
In the late game, VfB Stuttgart went down 1-0 but completed a late turnaround to defeat Mainz 2-1 and claim their fifth consecutive Bundesliga victory.
Stuttgart moved back to third, six points behind leaders Bayern.
The Bavarians top the league five points ahead of second place RB Leipzig after Saturday's 3-0 win at Borussia Mönchengladbach.
Leverkusen bounce back
"It was good to win. Losing 7-2 at home is tough but you could feel in training that the players shrugged it off. The coach put full focus on the Bundesliga. The team did very well today," Leverkusen midfielder Jonas Hofmann told streaming portal DAZN.
Coming off the 7-2 drubbing by PSG on Tuesday, Leverkusen had a slow start but their goalkeeper Mark Flekken saved twice early on against his ex-club, from Derry Scherhant and Junior Adamu.
The hosts started to get into the game, and Alejandro Grimaldo's dangerous free-kick was tipped around the post by Noah Atubolu in the 17th.
Poku then curled home for 1-0 into the bottom right corner five minutes later, and Tapsoba doubled the lead with a thumping header off Grimaldo's cross from the right seven minutes after the restart.
It should have been three two minutes later when Atubolu denied Poku and Arthur fired wide on the rebound. Christian Kofane also aimed wide in the 58th and Leverkusen comfortably saw out the match once Lienhart had to go for a second bookable offence.
Stuttgart fight back
Stuttgart enjoyed more possession in the first half but it was Mainz who broke the deadlock.
After video review, Stefan Bell's header was judged to have struck Chema Andres' hand, which was in an unnatural position, inside the Stuttgart box.
Nadiem Amiri was in charge of the penalty and found the net in the 41st minute.
Stuttgart coach Sebastian Hoeness was furious with the referee's decision and saw a yellow card, but his team regrouped and quickly found the equalizer before the break as Chris Führich fired an unstoppable stunner from distance.
And the hosts completed a late turnaround as goalkeeper Alexander Nübel provided a fantastic assist to Deniz Undav in the 80th.
Nübel spotted Undav on the run at the halfway line and launched a long ball that went past all Mainz defenders. Undav gladly received it and chipped it over the onrushing Robin Zentner.
Mainz pressured in the final minutes for the equalizer, with substitute Nikolas Veratschnig sending the ball centimetres wide of the goal, but couldn't take at least a point home.
"It was ugly, but we knew we had to keep trying, keep trying, and the right moment would come," Undav told DAZN.
There was a medical emergency in the Mainz fan block in the first half and several paramedics were called into action.
The fan was treated for some 20 minutes before being removed from the block, and shortly before the start of the second half Mainz wrote on X: "The fan is in a stable condition after being resuscitated and is on the way to the hospital."
- Bayern Leverkusen
- Freiburg
Source: www.dailyfinland.fi
