15th matchday
Gregoritsch for the third: SC Freiburg wrestles Cologne
SC Freiburg won the Bundesliga for the third time in a row. photo
© Philipp von Ditfurth/dpa
Freiburg achieved its third success in the Bundesliga in a row – and again Michael Gregoritsch played a crucial role. This means that the SC remains in close contact with the top places.
Freiburg’s goal producer Michael Gregoritsch has dealt 1. FC Köln their next setback in their relegation battle. Coach Steffen Baumgart’s team lost 0-2 (0-0) at SC and is still waiting for its third win of the season.
Before the end of the year on Wednesday with their fellow sufferers 1. FC Union Berlin, the Rhinelanders are in 16th place in the table.
In the end, SC head coach Christian Streich’s team, which was clearly superior, achieved its third win in a row in the Bundesliga in front of 34,700 spectators in a sold-out stadium – and for the third time in a row, Gregoritsch played a decisive role, this time scoring as a joker in the 72nd minute. Minute. Roland Sallai made everything clear (90th + 5).
While Freiburg have now been unbeaten for four games, Cologne weakened in many phases of a very mediocre game. Baumgart’s players are by far the weakest offensive with just ten goals after 15 match days. The guests also lost Jeff Chabot after a good hour due to yellow-red.
In the Europa Park Stadium, too, the Ultra fans were silent for the first twelve minutes in protest against investors’ entry into the German Football League. Above all, the shouts and whistles could be heard through Baumgart’s fingers all the way up to the stands. Afterwards, referee Harm Osmers interrupted the game for five minutes: as a further sign of protest, a real shower of chocolate thalers rained down on the lawn from the SC supporters’ block. The stewards even had to collect the gold-colored pieces in buckets before the game could continue.
Baumgart’s Cologne team were somehow put off by all of this, and in any case they didn’t play forward as boldly as they had at the beginning. For Freiburg, captain Vicenzo Grifo took a shot on the edge of the penalty area and narrowly missed (33′) – otherwise both teams often acted erratically before the break.
Gregoritsch initially on the bench
Streich surprisingly initially put Gregoritsch, the winning goalscorer in the 1-0 victories in Mainz and Wolfsburg, on the bench. After the Europa League defeat at West Ham United and before the draw for the second round this Monday, the Freiburg team dictated the action as the game length increased. In addition, the defense around veteran Matthias Ginter and the 22-year-old talent Jordy Makengo on the left side was largely secure.
The decimation of the opponent by the traffic light card for Chabot, who straddling Lucas Höler, and the inclusion of the strikers Gregoritsch and Roland Sallai helped the SC gain more momentum. In the 1-0 win, Gregoritsch benefited from the fact that the FC defenders had left their keeper Marvin Schwäbe pretty much alone.
On the other side, Davie Selke and his attacking colleagues hardly stood out in the second half. The current sporting situation in Cologne is difficult, club legend Lukas Podolski had previously told the TV channel Sport1: “FC now has two difficult away games left, if you lose twice, things will look bleak.”