Two teams that are looking to put an end to their respective unsuccessful runs are clashing against one another on Saturday, when Freiburg will be hosted by Bayer Leverkusen. Both teams have really produced a lot of goals lately, on both ends of the pitch, so we will make a bet on the Total Goals here.
Freiburg (5-7-0) were demolished in their last league match, this time against league leaders Red Bull Leipzig by 4-1 at home. That was Freiburg’s 3rd consecutive loss, as Freiburg are slowly starting to enter a bad spiral of losses. This has happened mainly due to their inconsistent defense, as Freiburg have conceded 11 goals in their last 3 matches, and have only kept 2 clean sheets after 12 matches. They have also managed to keep just 3 clean sheets after 14 matches in all competitions, but they have only failed to score in 2 matches so far. The goals are there for Freiburg, but they have yet to address their defensive issue, that is starting to deteriorate as we approach the winter break. Freiburg are also very weak on the road, as they have won just 1 of their 6 matches so far (1-5-0), while also featuring the 3rd worst road defense in the league with 15 conceded goals in 6 matches. They will have numerous injury concerns ahead of this match, as 6 players are listed as unavailable, while 1 is listed as questionable.
On the other hand, Bayer Leverkusen (5-6-1) fought hard in their most recent match, but they were unable to slavage any points from that 1-2 hard fought loss to Bayern Munich. That was the second consecutive loss for the Bayer Leverkusen, as they are now sitting at the 10th spot of the Bundesliga with 16 points, having already fallen off 8 points from the top 4. Coach Schmidt’s team has suffered from inconsistency all season long, and especially in their last 8 matches where they had 2 wins, then 2 losses, then 2 wins and then again 2 losses. It is more than clear that Bayer are struggling to find some momentum so far, especially when their defense is severely underperforming. There have been Over 2.5 Goals in 7 of their 8 most recent league matches, while 5 of those matches had goals from both sides. They are running a 3-2-1 record at home so far, where they have scored 10 against 9 conceded goals. Bayer Leverkusen will be heading into this match with several newly acquired injuries, as Volland and Mehmedi will be joining Bender, Kiessling and Bellarabi at the injury list.