Freiburg ride fortune to top table but Streich chooses to channel Ranieri | Andy Brassell


Coach insists avoiding relegation is his club’s main aim despite a 3-2 win at Leverkusen that took them to the summit

It took a bit of fortune but few, bar those of a Bayer Leverkusen persuasion, were complaining. Freiburg eventually came out on top in a five-goal thriller at BayArena on Saturday, a scenario that had looked a long way from likely at half-time. Their coach, Christian Streich, called it “a lucky win”, with characteristic frankness.

No matter. Freiburg go back into European competition this week on top of the Bundesliga. They’ve been there before only once before, after winning 4-0 against Stuttgart on the opening day of 2000-01, so whether you can even count that is open to debate. Streich said post-match that he’s not bothered about this doubtless fleeting moment on the top rung either. “I’m not interested in that,” he told Sky. “Everything is going well at the moment – so well that we are the luckier of the teams in some of these games.”

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