Status: 03/02/2022 11:49 p.m
SC Freiburg fought their way into the semi-finals of the DFB Cup at VfL Bochum. After regular time it was 1-1 – the decision was made in extra time: Roland Sallai coldly exploited a mistake made by Bochum.
Petersen gave the visitors the lead shortly after the break (51′), Sebastian Polter equalized with a header (64′). The game with few goal chances went into extra time, where Roland Sallai took advantage of a mistake made by Bochum in the very last minute and Freiburg shot to victory (120th).
“You give it your all for 120 minutes here in front of the great crowd – and then unfortunately you get such an annoying goal,” said VfL goal scorer Polter in the Sportschau – but then the declaration of war for the next tasks in the league came: “We win together , we lose together, no one is blamed here,” said the 30-year-old, “it’s annoying, but we’ll continue!”
Streich’s analysis: fair as usual
“It was very balanced, with Bochum perhaps having a slight advantage. Today we had a happier ending,” said Freiburg coach Christian Streich on the Sportschau microphone. And when asked if he was squinting at the final, Streich said with a grin: “I’m not squinting.”
In the first part of the game, both teams exchanged blows, which was characterized by many bad passes and few chances to score. Bochum, last in the semi-finals in 1988, kept the guests from Breisgau away from their own penalty area, Freiburg could do little to counteract this.
Bochum with a lot of luck, Petersen and Polter meet
Nils Petersen carelessly missed the greatest chance of the first half when he shot too quickly (38′). The 0:0 at the break was accordingly performance-based. Shortly before the half-time whistle Bochum were lucky that referee Robert Schröder did not regard a grab by Jürgen Locadia on Philipp Lienhart’s neck as an assault and the VAR did not intervene either. Bochum coach Thomas Reis replaced Locadia with Sebastian Polter as a precaution. A stroke of luck, as it turned out later.
Petersen showed his real class five minutes after the restart. After a shot from the half-right by Kevin Schade, VfL keeper Manuel Riemann was still able to parry. But the ball fell in front of Knipser Petersen, who ran into the right position and dusted the ball from seven meters.
The hosts needed a quarter of an hour to recover from the shock of being behind: Elvis Rexhbecaj took the ball with him in right midfield and served Sebastian Polter with a precise cross: Polter’s header into the far corner was unstoppable for SCF keeper Mark Flekken.
Streich’s coach Freiburg is remodeling
Freiburg coach Christian Streich rebuilt his team 20 minutes before the regular end: Höler, Sallai and Demirovic came on for Petersen, Grifo and Jeong. This did not change anything tactically or effectively in the game, the game remained hard-fought without becoming overly tough: referee Schröder had not once pulled his yellow card out of his breast pocket up to the 90th minute.
Bochum’s best chance of scoring a second goal came in extra time after one of the few corners in the game (99′): Eduard Löwen took a short lead from the left, was quickly passed back and pulled the ball low onto the Freiburg goal – Rexhbecaj missed it ball by a few centimetres. And just three minutes later, Polter missed a cross from Christopher Antwi-Adjei – at that point the home side were much closer to the opening goal than the guests from the south.
Sallai wide awake to the end
Both teams have already dealt with penalties – except for Roland Sallai. Bochum’s otherwise good central defender Maxim Leitsch (78% won tackles, 104 ball contacts) made a failed back pass, which Sallai coldly exploited. Freiburg reached the semi-finals for the second time in the club’s history.
The semi-final opponent will be Sunday (03/06/2022) in the sports show drawn by bobsleigh Olympic champion Laura Nolte. The semi-finals will be played on April 19th and 20th, the final on May 21st, traditionally in Berlin. All games will be broadcast live on ARD.
Source: sportschau.de