The 98 minutes at the Mercedes-Benz Arena, overseen by referee Dr. Felix Brych, were anyone’s game until the final whistle.  “We threw ourselves in the way of every single shot in the closing stages, and dealt with everything,” said a celebratory captain Christian Günter after the final whistle of a win defined by goalkeeper Mark Flekken’s stellar performance.

“We’ve secured a lucky win today,” commented coach Streich. “The first half was pretty equal in general. We scored our goal with the first chance of the game, with Vince running through and getting the ball over the line. After the break, Stuttgart were better than us in a few aspects. We need to take a look at a few things, because we didn’t trust ourselves playing out from the back towards the end.  I’m happy we won the game, but I have to compliment VfB – they were very versatile and did well.”

Grifo finds the net early

Christian Streich and the rest of his coaching staff selected the same starting XI that has started both previous Bundesliga games this season. In contrast, Stuttgart made one change from last week’s 2-2 draw away to Werder Bremen, as Borna Sosa came in for Tiago Tomas. VfB’s home, the Mercedes-Benz Arena, is currently undergoing some renovation work, meaning capacity is reduced  to 47,500 – around 4,000 SC fans found their home in the away end.

Despite fewer fans to spur them on, the home side started the better of the two teams, fashioning the first chance through a Silas header after just five minutes. At the other end, though, the 4,000 away fans were the ones to celebrate a goal first. After some scrappy play, the ball found its way out to Kiliann Sildillia on the right wing. His cross was too far in front of the onrushing Michael Gregoritsch, but Vincenzo Grifo was on hand at the back post to tap home from close range and give SCF the lead on 11 minutes.

Flekken takes centre stage

The first goal of the game looked to be the wedge in the door for Freiburg to kick on: Christian Streich’s men won more of their tackles and gave VfB little room in midfield. Despite that, and the high tempo of the game, clear goalscoring chances were few and far between. Michael Gregoritsch missed an opportunity to double the lead after being found by Ritsu Doan – his header fell just wide of former Freiburg goalkeeper Florian Müller’s net on the half-hour mark. Ten minutes later, the roles swapped as Gregoritsch played his teammate through inside the penalty area. The Japanese international’s touch let him down though, and the score remained 1-0.

Mark Flekken was also called into some fine action more than once in the half, as he dealt well with headers from the physical Tino Mavropanos and Sasa Kalajdzic (35’, 42’).

After the restart, Flekken was back among the action quickly. A chipped ball down the line from Waldemar Anton had played VfB’s Borna Sosa clean through and he was bearing down on goal – the Dutchman denied his opponent in a one-on-one (47’). Freiburg went straight up the other end and fashioned a shot through Doan, whose attempt was dealt with easily by the home goalkeeper.

A nerve-wracking finish

With VfB breaking down the Freiburg right more and more as the half drew on, Streich and co. made their first change, strengthening the defence as Manuel Gulde replaced the lively Doan.

That defensive reinforcement did not prevent the nerves for the travelling SC fans, as their staunch block meant they were unable to escape the attacking onslaught from VfB. Shots from Wooyeong Jeong and captain Günter flew high and wide (67’, 73’), the only attacking forays for Freiburg in a half dominated by their defence as it withstood Stuttgart attacks.

Despite the pressure, Philipp Leinhart, Matthias Ginter and the rest of the SCF backline stood firm, defending passionately and intelligently. Flekken in goal provided a fine last line of defence  to see the team through the eight minutes of injury time with no issues and secure three derby day points for Freiburg to take home.

Photo: Achim Keller