Alejandro Grimaldo: ‘The players are really tired. We’ll try to keep going until the end, but it won’t be easy’ | OneFootball

Alejandro Grimaldo struck his fifth free-kick of the campaign – more than any player across Europe’s top five leagues – as Bayer Leverkusen were held to a 3-3 draw against Freiburg on Saturday.

The Spaniard’s first half knuckle-ball brought Leverkusen level with their Baden-Württemberg opponents before Martin Terrier put Kasper Hjulmand’s men in front just before the hour mark. However, Die Werkself were unable to hold on with Matthias Ginter securing Freiburg a share of the spoils.

Sitting sixth, three points adrift of third-placed VfB Stuttgart, Grimaldo admitted that he and his teammates are running on fumes with the increased amount of games at this stage of the season, with Bayer in three competitions.

“We don’t have many players,” said Grimaldo. “The team, the players are really tired. We’ll try until the end, but it won’t be easy.”

Leverkusen have just one win in their last five games across all competitions and face a tough run of games with a UEFA Champions League last 16 clash against Premier League leaders Arsenal sandwiched between Bayern Munich’s visit to the BayArena.

GGFN | Daniel Pinder