The stands at the Europa-Park Stadion were finally well-filled, and the sun shone down as Christian Streich made one change to his starting XI. Jonathan Schmid was replaced by Lukas Kübler on the right side of the defence. Before referee Sven Jablonski kicked off the game, there was a perfectly observed minute’s silence, in solidarity with the people of Ukraine and as a symbol of peace and freedom.

The opening stages of the game were dominated by SCF. Hertha were camped in their own half, giving the home side the majority of the ball. This came a head after just six minutes, as a 20-yard free kick from Vincenzo Grifo was tipped over the crossbar by debutant Hertha goalkeeper Marcel Lotka. The next big chance for SC was, once again, a dead-ball situation – a penalty in fact, as Roland Sallai was fouled inside the penalty area by Linus Gechter. Grifo took charge and made no mistake from 12 yards, finding the top corner with aplomb – 1-0 to Freiburg after 12 minutes. After the game, both coaches described the penalty as “soft”. “We were a bit lucky in this case,” said Streich.

SC dominate, Hertha with few chances

The hosts had the game well within their grasp. Freiburg played well, were energetic in their tackles, attacked and defended in transitions excellently and played some flowing football. The left wing of Christian Günter and Grifo worked wonders and Hertha looked shaky. It was a sight to behold: “We started the game really well,” commented Streich. Sallai and Wooyeong Jeong on the right hand side also did well, which came to a head after 26 minutes when Sallai crossed into the six-yard box, Nils Petersen was unable to tap home and Grifo’s attempt smashed the post.

Hertha had their first meaningful chance after around half an hour. One of their few forays forward saw the ball with Stevan Jovetić, whose attempt was cleared for a corner (28’). Five minutes later, the home side created a great chance which goalkeeper Lotka parried away, Maxi Eggestein firing low from range. Despite the SCF superiority, Hertha created a big chance through Peter Pekarík, whose was fed by a Jovetić pass and was free inside the penalty area. However, his shot was fantastically parried away by the legs of Mark Flekken, who made himself big and prevented the equaliser (38’).

The second half began with a good chance from a free kick, Grifo finding the side netting five minutes after the restart. SC’s dominance was not as strong in the second half, though, as Hertha head coach Tayfun Korkut said: “The game was pretty even in the second half.” His side were more compact than before and allowed the home side less space to play in. Grifo’s free kick was the only notable chance for Freiburg for a long while, as Hertha played well and once again came close to the equaliser. Marco Richter had a shot from the inside right channel, but Flekken once again did brilliantly to parry the ball over (63’).

Two substitutes seal the win

Lucas Höler and Kevin Schade both came on to bring fresh legs into a game that was evenly matched 15 minutes from time despite a relative lack of chances. The Berlin side did well and Streich’s side did not get as much space to play in as they did in the first half: “Hertha did very well up until the last few minutes,” said SCF’s head coach. With nine minutes of normal time remaining, Nico Schlotterbeck found space and played in Grifo on the left, the Italian’s effort narrowly rolling wide. Just two minutes later, though, the lead was finally doubled through Schade. A Günter cross came through the penalty area and evaded Ermedin Demirovic, but Schade was on hand to fire in from close range to score his fourth goal of the season.

The 21,000 fans in the Europa-Park Stadion barely had time to settle down after the goal before they were up and celebrating once again. Höler was next to score, his first attempt hitting the post following build-up work from Noah Weißhaupt, before he tapped in the rebound on 86 minutes. Three goals and three points for SC! “The substitutions really gave us energy in the game – we got back to winning our battles and fought out the win that way,” said Streich, who was satisfied but also found the scoreline not to be reflective of the game. The win means his team has hit the 40 point mark in the Bundesliga this season and gives them a boost going into this three-game week. Wednesday night sees SC face VfL Bochum in the quarter finals of the DFB-Pokal.

Photo: Achim Keller