It's just a five-minute walk from Karlsruher SC's home ground to the Sportplatz am KIT, the location for SC Freiburg's final friendly of the year.

With 11 players away on international duty, SC were also without Patrick Osterhage due to a planned dental surgery. This allowed the coaching staff to give minutes to those players that hadn't been able to feature much in the last weeks. Only Matthias Ginter, Maxi Eggestein, Vincenzo Grifo and Lukas Kübler retained their spots in the starting line-up following the 0-0 draw in Berlin at the weekend. Five players from the club's U23s were named to the bench, alongside Manuel Gulde, who had been sidelined with back problems recently.

It didn't take long for the first – and only – goal of the game to fall, as Maxi Philipp was able to beat his marker and deliver a low cross into the box. His strike partner Höler only needed to extend his foot in order to tap in to make it 1-0 in the ninth minute.

At the other end of the pitch, SC goalkeeper Florian Müller was called up to make several saves in the opening 20 minutes. He was able to deny the hosts three times with well-time saves.

With the pitch not in the best condition, SC looked to catch their opponents on the counter and to play more long balls up the pitch. This approach helped the team create several good chances on goal, the best of which fell to Eggestein. His first-time shot from the edge of the area sailed just over the crossbar (40').

Christian Günter came on for Grifo at the start of the second half, with the captain playing in an unfamiliar position on the right wing. He soon came extremely close to doubling SC'S lead, testing goalkeeper Aki Koch, who had also come on at half time, with a powerful low shot (53').

The two teams both performed well, in what was a high-quality and intense friendly. Philipp was unlucky to hit the crossbar in the 70th minute, as substitute Jannik Huth then denied KSC's Marvin Wanizek's darting run (75').

In the end, Höler's goal would remain the only one of the afternoon in a narrow win for SC. "We wanted to take this week to work with the players that are here and to end the week with a friendly. We've one again kept a clean sheet and scored a goal, which are positive signs. It's important for us to maintain our rhythm in order to take this momentum with us into the games leading up to Christmas," said head coach Julian Schuster.

SC will be back to league action on Saturday, 24th November (15:30 CET), as they travel to take on Borussia Dortmund.

Photo: SC Freiburg

SC Freiburg: F. Müller (62', Huth) – Kübler (70', Steinmann), Ginter, Schmidt (70', Gulde), Makengo – Weißhaupt, Höfler, Eggestein, Grifo (45', Günter) – Philipp, Höler

Goal: 0-1 Höler (9')