Alongside Racing Strasbourg, FC Basel are a not-so-distant neighbour and frequent friendly opponent for SC Freiburg. In recent years, meetings with the 20-time Swiss champions have been close-run affairs, but this time around the hosts pulled off a convincing 6-0 victory at the Europa-Park Stadion.

The first opportunity of the game fell the way of the visitors in what was a quiet opening phase. After a cross from the right flank, Matthias Ginter blocked a shot from the diving Kevin Carlos (7’). Then, Maximilian Eggestein’s attempt got deflected out for a corner off of a Basel defender.

Among others, in the starting line-up for Basel were former SC player Mohamed Dräger and Xherdan Shaqiri, who recently returned to the club. Noah Weißhaupt, who recently picked up a knock, and Patrick Osterhage (precautionary measures) were unavailable for the matchday squad. The Freiburg coaching staff opted for a primarily attacking but changeable formation, with Yann Sturm repeatedly drifting into the middle of the park from the right-hand side, causing disarray in the Swiss ranks.

Wörner bags a high-class hat-trick

By the halfway point of the first period, Freiburg were becoming increasingly sure of possession, repeatedly stringing together nice passing sequences, one of which paid dividends in the 24th minute. Lucas Höler released Jordy Makengo down the left wing and the tall left-back played his cross behind the defensive rear-guard towards Marco Wörner, who swept SC into the lead from ten metres out.

The 19-year-old produced the next two notable moments as well. Firstly, from close range, he steered home a headed knock-down from Philipp Lienhart following Grifo’s corner to make it 2-0 (30’), before he met Lukas Kübler’s inch-perfect cross with his head to secure a 3-0 lead at the break (38’). At that point, he was handed a well-earned rest, with Christian Günter replacing him for the second half. Philipp Lienhart was also withdrawn, with Kenneth Schmidt entering the field.

The visitors currently sit on ten points after their opening six games of the new Swiss Super League season but the hosts’ dominance of FC Basel continued after half-time. A low delivery into the box from Günter found Sturm, who could only direct his effort onto the underside of the bar. However, Höler was on hand to head in the rebound for 4-0 (57’).

Höler and Grifo add a gloss to the score line

After 66 minutes, Höler failed to complete a brace with a shot from the left-hand side, but two minutes later the attacker did score a second goal of the day with a lob over the onrushing Basel keeper Mirko Salvi after a ball through from Grifo.

Höler and Grifo combined once more for the final goal, although this time the other way round. Grifo played a one-two with Höler, then found himself free in front of the opposing goal and finessed the ball right-footed into the far corner in his usual fashion (87’). “The important thing is the way we play. That was good today. It was nice to see the boys reward themselves. We’ve focussed on our final-third play in training this week and the team implemented that well today,” said Julian Schuster after the game.

SC will be back to the day-to-day of the Bundesliga on Saturday, 14th September when they host VfL Bochum at the Europa-Park Stadion (kick-off 15:30 CEST).

Goals: 1-0 Wörner (24’), 2-0 Wörner (30’), 3-0 Wörner (38’), 4-0 Höler (57’), 5-0 Höler (66’), 6-0 Grifo (87’)

SC line-up: Atubolu – Kübler, Lienhart (46’, Schmidt), Ginter, Makengo – Höfler, Eggestein – Grifo, Sturm – Höler, Wörner (46’, Günter).

Photo: SC Freiburg