BERLIN: Freiburg kept hot on the heels of Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund with a comfortable 2-0 home win over lowly Union Berlin to return to third in the Bundesliga table on Sunday, while Bayer Leverkusen sunk derby rivals Cologne.
Freiburg pressured Union captain Rani Khedira into an own goal nine minutes after halftime and Yuito Suzuki scored another as the hosts won despite their own skipper Vincenzo Grifo missing a penalty.
Freiburg are third on 19 points, two behind Bayern and Dortmund.
Earlier on Sunday, goals from Aleix Garcia and Patrik Schick took Bayer Leverkusen to a tense 2-1 derby win at Cologne which lifted the visitors to fifth in the table.
Said El Mala scored for Cologne in stoppage time but the goal came too late to launch a Cologne comeback and left the hosts stranded in 15th, two points above Union who sit in the relegation play-off spot. In Sunday’s late game, Hoffenheim won 2-1 at promoted Schalke.-AFP