Having been on the end of a 7-2 thrashing against Paris Saint-Germain in the UEFA Champions League in midweek, Die Werkself were immediately under pressure in the early stages here.
Mark Flekken was forced into a pair of smart saves at this near post to deny Derry Scherhant and Junior Adamu inside the opening five minutes, before Christian Kofane headed over at the other end.
Leverkusen eventually gained a foothold, and even broke the deadlock at the half’s midway point through Ernest Poku, who found the bottom corner from distance after playing a smart one-two with Aleix Garcia.
A Scherhant free-kick that drifted narrowly wide of the target was the best Freiburg could muster in response before the break, but they were far from out of the contest considering that each of the previous 10 head-to-heads had seen both teams score.
Yet any hopes Julian Schuster’s men had of recovering a result were dented when Leverkusen doubled their lead just seven minutes after the restart. Alejandro Grimaldo’s pinpoint cross from the right was met by Edmond Tapsoba, who made no mistake in heading home his first home league goal since January 2023.
Freiburg appeared to have no answer, and their woes were only exacerbated when Philipp Lienhart was sent off after receiving a second yellow card for a trip on the right wing.
That made the task much more simple for Die Werkself, who comfortably stretched their unbeaten run in the Bundesliga under Kasper Hjulmand to six matches, winning four in a row in the competition for the first time since January.
Freiburg, meanwhile, taste defeat for the first time in nine outings across all competitions, yet languish in the bottom half having failed to win their last four games in the Bundesliga.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Aleix Garcia (Bayer Leverkusen)
