Bayer Leverkusen thrashed Freiburg in the absence of Super Eagles star, Victor Boniface.
Bayer Leverkusen manager Xabi Alonso lauded his team's resolute performance following their dominant 5-1 victory over Freiburg in Saturday's Bundesliga clash.
The 2023/2024 league winners finished the first half of the Bundesliga season impressively, defeating SC Freiburg 5-1.
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Patrik Schick delivered a sensational four-goal performance and Florian Wirtz added another to complete the rout.
What Alonso said
Alonso insisted that the match presented a tougher challenge than it appeared.
However, Alonso was quick to point out that the result didn't fully reflect the difficulty of the encounter.
"The result may have been spectacular and Patrik scored four goals but the game was not as easy as it seemed. We had a good opponent and we had to prepare our actions intelligently," Alonso told reporters via Reuters.
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"When a striker scores four goals you can't complain. Patrik also does a lot of work off the ball and when he does that well, that's why he scores the goal," he said.
He continued, "He helps the team and they make the chances for him. It was a very important victory for us today. We wanted to continue our series and go into the break with a good feeling. We managed that. We will continue to attack in the new year.
"That gives everyone a good feeling. We have big ambitions to continue fighting for our goals in 2025 and want to achieve a lot together," he said.
The victory pushed Leverkusen to second place on the Bundesliga table with 32 points, closing the gap on league leaders Bayern Munich to four points.