Bayer 04 Leverkusen 2-1 SC Freiburg: Bundesliga Match Report, 18 October 2026

Freiburg arrived third in the table and unbeaten after five games, and left with a first defeat: Bayer 04 Leverkusen 2-1 SC Freiburg. It was 1-1 at half-time, so each club scored once before the break and Leverkusen took the game with the only goal of the second half.

Three points separated them, and both records were worth reading in full. Freiburg stood third on 13 points from five games with a goal difference of +10: 4-1 at home over Werder Bremen, 1-0 at Paderborn, 5-0 at home to Mönchengladbach, a 2-2 at Eintracht Frankfurt and a 2-1 at home against Schalke. Leverkusen were fourth on ten from five with +6, having lost their opener 3-2 at promoted Elversberg and then gone four without defeat, the last of them a 4-3 at Mainz eight days earlier.

The context last May supplies is worth holding in mind, because it cuts against the table. Freiburg finished seventh on 47 points with a negative goal difference of -6; Leverkusen finished sixth on 59. On that evidence Freiburg were the side outperforming their level and Leverkusen the one catching up to theirs, and the head-to-head said the same: Freiburg had not beaten Leverkusen in their previous four meetings, drawing 3-3 and 2-2 and losing 2-0 and 5-1.

Both clubs now sit on 13 points from six games, which is the neatest summary of the afternoon available. Leverkusen's +6 becomes +7 and Freiburg's +10 drops to +9, so the gap between them is a goal difference rather than a position, and Leverkusen have won four and drawn one of the five matches since their opening defeat.

For Freiburg it is a first defeat in six. Their opening five had come against Werder Bremen, Paderborn, Mönchengladbach, Eintracht Frankfurt and Schalke, and Leverkusen — sixth last May, twelve points clear of Freiburg over those 34 games — were a clear step up from any of them. That limits what the defeat is worth as evidence: 13 points from six is a better rate than the 47-point season they came off, 28 games and 84 points remain, and the first loss arriving at the ground of a club that finished above them is the least alarming version available.

No pre-match call of ours attaches to this fixture. The site had been quiet for a month when it was played, which is why this page is a report and not a settlement.