Leverkusen confident ahead of facing Freiburg
Bayer Leverkusen and Freiburg have both enjoyed strong starts to their Bundesliga campaigns, and will square off at BayArena this Monday (AEDT), with the latter looking for a win to retake top spot from Bayern Munich.
Freiburg was knocked off first position on Sunday (AEDT) after Bayern's 6-1 thrashing of RB Leipzig, but a win against Leverkusen, which thrashed Lech Poznan 4-0 in Europe in midweek, would return it to the summit, leap-frogging both defending champion Bayern and second-placed Borussia Dortmund, which drew 0-0 against Union Berlin.
Leverkusen, though, is full of confidence having made it two wins from two to begin its UEFA Europa League campaign, and sits fourth on the table after last week's thrilling 4-3 win away to Mainz, and boss Carles Martinez is hoping recent form will help his side to victory.
"We want to carry on exactly like this and keep pushing ourselves further," Martinez said ahead of the meeting with Freiburg.
"The important thing now is to build up our energy, both mentally and physically, for Sunday [Monday AEDT]."
Martinez did, however, acknowledge the difficulties of facing Freiburg, which sits one point behind Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund with a game in hand.
The key to its strong start has been consistency, with Freiburg naming the same starting line-up in each of its past four Bundesliga matches and making only one change to its XI all season, which is fewer than any other team.
However, it is forced into a change against Leverkusen after the suspension of Yuito Suzuki, who is Freiburg's top scorer in the Bundesliga this season with four goals.
"I have great respect for them. They deserve to be top of the table," Martinez said of Freiburg. "They compete with aggression and have a clear style of play.
"But we're also in good form and are playing at home at our own stadium. We're in a good place with our fans behind us.
"It's not just the results that matter to me, but also the team's performance. That's always fundamental to success.
"We want to field eleven players in every match who produce maximum intensity on the pitch."
