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Expected information about the match

Germany 1.Bundesliga 12.Round

23.11 14:30

Stadium: BayArena

Capacity: 30210

Turf: Grass

Distance: 442 km (274.61 mi.)

Bayer Leverkusen

Lars Bender is back in the squad after missing last match and it is big boost

Lars Bender - Midfielder (DM) - Regular player

18

16

4

3

2

1419

2

0

3

0

Leon Bailey will miss and it can be big blow for team

Leon Bailey - Attack (LW) - Rotation player

22

12

11

10

1105

5

3

0

2

Kai Havertz will miss and it can be big blow for team

Kai Havertz - Midfielder (AM) - Key player

30

29

2

9

1

2463

12

6

3

0

Team is playing an important Champions League game on Tuesday

General H2H stats vs Freiburg (in all competitions): 18W 12D 10L

Home H2H stats vs Freiburg (in all competitions): 11W 4D 4L

Bayer Leverkusen are likely to be without midfield talisman Kai Havertz. Havertz picked up a hamstring injury in Leverkusen's 2-0 win at Wolfsburg before the international break, which will almost certainly rule him out of Saturday's clash with the Black Forest club.

Captain Lars Bender was back in team training on Monday and could start at right-back in place of Mitchell Weiser. Midfielder Charles Aranguiz also returned early from international duty as Chile's friendly in Peru was cancelled due to ongoing civil unrest back home.

Havertz has played 98 Bundesliga games for Leverkusen. If he returns against Freiburg, he could seal his century against Bayern Munich on Matchday 13 at the tender age of 20 years, five months and 20 days.

Leverkusen are unbeaten in each of their last six Bundesliga home games against Freiburg. The last time the Black Forest club picked up three points at the BayArena was March 2012, when Julian Schuster and Daniel Caligiuri scored in a 2-0 win.

If Die Werkself can win by four goals or more, they would leapfrog Freiburg into fourth (depending on results elsewhere).

Leverkusen faces Freiburg without Kai Havertz, Daley Sinkgraven and Joel Pohjanpalo (all injured) plus the suspended Leon Bailey. - reported the official website of Bayer

Freiburg

Luca Waldschmidt will miss and it can be big blow for team

Luca Waldschmidt - Attack (CF) - Regular player

23

14

10

9

1267

7

1

3

0

Alexander Schwolow will miss and it can be big blow for team

Alexander Schwolow - Goalkeeper (GK) - Regular player

24

1

0

2092

0

Christian Streich: "Just keep on going, don’t think about it too much, concentrate on the basics and find a good balance between calmness and speed. I am certain that Leverkusen will not underestimate us. You can forget that. Leverkusen will try to press us and make us play football. We need to find solutions to that as a team and as individuals. It will be a big challenge, but we're looking forward to it. We have lots of respect for Leverkusen. They’re not a bad team at all, but neither are we at the moment. If Leverkusen play better than us on the day, then we need to accept it. But if not, we have a chance of getting a result.”

Streich and his team will be without several players for the game on Saturday. Luca Waldschmidt (facial fracture, knee and calf injuries) and Vincenzo Grifo (banned for 3 matches) will both be absent, while Luca Itter (cold) is a doubt.

Goalkeeper Alexander Schwolow is a doubt with a hamstring problem, but stand-in Mark Flekken did a superb job against Frankfurt, keeping a clean sheet despite the Eagles having 17 shots on goal.

Freiburg are off to their best ever season start, though, Streich's men boasting a record 21 points after the first 11 games, claiming the scalps of Leipzig and Frankfurt on the way.

Petersen scored his 50th Bundesliga goal for Freiburg in the 1-0 win over Frankfurt, and has 82 in all competitions. Germany coach Löw's record of 83 goals for the Baden-Württemberg club is in sight.