When news of the starting line-ups reached the media working room in Freiburg this afternoon, it was met with several looks of astonishment. “He’s playing again!?” was the common sentiment amongst the journalists in the room. The player in question was Matthias Ginter, who had netted a late equaliser to send Freiburg’s mid-week cup tie against St. Pauli to extra-time, before setting up the winner in the 119th minute – despite carrying a head and ankle injury from previous games. It wasn’t guaranteed that he would start against Bremen, but when the line-ups were announced, there was ‘Gintes’ lining up in the heart of defence one again. Goalkeeper Mark Flekken returned to the starting XI, after Noah Atubolu had replaced him on Wednesday night.

In front of a sold-out crowd at the Europa-Park Stadion, SC began with a back-three of Ginter, Kübler and Philipp Lienhart. Kilian Sildillia and Christian Günter featured on the wings, and were given free rein to contribute to the attack.

Werder go down to 10 men early on

SC went on the attack early on, and benefitted from an early sending off. Sildillia played in Michael Gregoritsch, who was through on goal before being taken down by Marco Friedl. Referee Bastian Dankert didn’t hesitate before showing the defender a red card (14’). “If we take away their red card, then it would have been a 50/50 game,” Christian Streich said afterwards. “We had the benefit of playing 11 vs. 10, but you have to make sure to use that advantage.”

Freiburg also looked to use the left side of the pitch, with Günter nearly picking out Daniel Kofi-Kyereh with a cross. The hosts were met with a resolute Bremen defence, with forward Niclas Füllkrug pitching in at the back to help make up for the lack of an additional defender. As a result, the teams headed into the break with the score still deadlocked at 0-0.

Doan subbed on at half-time, Kübler opens the scoring

Streich brought on Ritsu Doan for Yannik Keitel at the break, giving his side another option in attack. The match remained a closely-fought encounter, with Werder managing to win a couple of set pieces in the Freiburg half. Anthony Jung was able to get on the end of a corner from Marvin Ducksch, but set his shot into the crowd (54’).

Just two minutes later, a cross from Grifo sailed through a sea of Werder defenders in the box before landing with Kübler slotting home the opener.

“We defender extremely well and were able to generate lots of pressure and use the wings,” Streich commented. “I’m already looking forward to this fixture in the second half of the season in a sold-out Weserstadion.”

Grifo beats Pavlenka with a Panenka

Following the go-ahead goal, Werder began to expose more gaps in their backline, but SC were unable to add to their lead. Doan (59’), Grifo (62’) and Gregoritsch – in a one-v-one with goalkeeper Jiri Pavlenka (66’) – all came close but were blocked by Pavlenka.

Freiburg were awarded a penalty in the 80th minute after Grifo was taken down by Felix Agu. The Italian stepped up to take it, tricking Pavlenka with a skillfully taken Panenka to make it 2-0.

Doan had a good chance to make it 3-0 in the 84th minute after a cross from Günter, but was blocked by Werder’s defence. With the win, Freiburg move to 21 points from 11 games. Next up, SC will face Olympiakos in the Europa League on Thursday, with a win enough to secure top spot in their group.

Photo: Achim Keller