Leverkusen back to winning ways

Bayer Leverkusen picked up their first win of the season with a convincing 2-0 win against Freiburg at the BayArena.

Bayer Leverkusen picked up their first win of the season with a convincing 2-0 win against Freiburg at the BayArena. Gonzalo Castro and Philipp Wollscheid scored the goals to give Sami Hyypia and Sascha Lewandowski their first win since becoming full-time coaches of Leverkusen over the summer. Freiburg were poor throughout the contest and slumped to the brink of the bottom three. The warning signs were there for Freiburg as early as the seventh minute when Stefan Kiessling set up Andre Schurrle, who rounded Oliver Baumann but saw his shot cleared off the line by Fallou Diagne. But a minute later Castro had the ball in the back of the net with a brave header from close range after Kiessling's shot looped up off Baumann. Baumann denied Kiessling just before the break, this time ensuring the ball did not break loose for another Leverkusen player. The home side doubled their lead in the 54th minute with a header from Wollscheid, just a minute after Baumann had made a stunning save to deny Kiessling. Freiburg had no answer to Leverkusen's superiority and the home side appeared to take it easy for the final half an hour, perhaps already seeking to preserve energy in view of their Europa League campaign which starts on September 20 against Metalist Kharkiv. Before then, Hyypia and Lewandowski will lose most of their squad for international matches. Leverkusen are next in action in a fortnight at defending champions Borussia Dortmund, while Freiburg will hope they can pick up their first win of the season against fellow strugglers Hoffenheim.