Bundesliga
Ginter’s goosebumps and Freiburg’s desire for European Cup evenings
Freiburg’s goalkeeper Mark Flekken celebrates the victory with the fans on the fence after the game. photo
© Tom Weller/dpa
SC Freiburg gets their third win in their fourth Bundesliga game. Thoughts also revolve around the draw for the group stage in the Europa League. Because the demands of Freiburg have increased.
Mark Flekken didn’t need to be asked twice. The SC Freiburg goalkeeper followed the demands of his own fans. He climbed up to them on the fence, took the megaphone in his hand and made team-mate Matthias Ginter tingle.
“To be honest, I had goosebumps at the end,” said the Bundesliga club’s defender, who was celebrated by his own supporters after his third win in four games.
Ginter was allowed to collect completely different memories in his career. He was in the squad when Germany won the World Cup in Brazil in 2014. He won the DFB Cup and the Supercup with Borussia Dortmund, and in the early years of his career Ginter secured two cup wins with the Freiburgers with the A youth team.
Freiburg strong, Bochum still pointless
A 1-0 (0-0) win against bottom VfL Bochum, who are still without a win and points, shouldn’t really cause too much emotion. Ginter disagreed. Because the people of Breisgau crowned an eventful Friday with the best possible yield.
The group stage of the Europa League, in which Freiburg is represented for the first time, was drawn at noon. The sports club meets FC Nantes, Olympiacos Piraeus and Karabakh Agdam. The Azerbaijani club will start with a home game on September 8th, according to the exact schedule on Saturday.
Attacker Michael Gregoritsch underlined that the demand for the cup finalists has increased. “We want to progress,” the Austrian made unmistakably clear.
He was unlucky against VfL, who were much better than 7-0 against FC Bayern Munich. Gregoritsch, like substitute Nils Petersen, failed at the post. Nevertheless, it was enough for three points because Vincenzo Grifo scored after a missed penalty with the second margin (48th) and Bochum also had two bad luck with aluminum.
Streich: “We want to prove ourselves internationally”
“Nine points from four games – that helps us,” said coach Christian Streich, who was already thinking about the tight program until the end of the group phase in early November. But he was also satisfied. His team kept a clean sheet for the third time. Only in the bitter 3-1 defeat against Borussia Dortmund, when a lead was lost in the final phase, did Freiburg concede a goal this season.
Returnee Ginter also played a large part in this. Together with Philipp Lienhart, the 28-year-old, who returned to Dreisam from Borussia Mönchengladbach during the summer break, ensures order. It is an important building block to achieve the goals this season. “We represent Germany in the Europa League. We want to prove ourselves there and we think that’s cool,” said Streich.
The SC supporters got a foretaste of what the English Weeks could look like under floodlights in Freiburg. And Ginter and his teammates seem to have taken a liking to it right away. “Obviously we hope that the European nights will be similar,” he said.