A second half own goal from Baptiste Santamaria (68‘) was enough to hand Arminia all three points. 

Haberer and Jeong start

Christian Streich made just two changes from the defeat in Mönchengladbach, with Wooyeong Jeong and Jannik Haberer replacing the suspended Ermedin Demirovic and Lucas Höler, whose wife gave birth just hours before kick-off. Yannik Keitel replaced him alongside Baptise Santamaria in midfield. Vincenzo Grifo returned to the squad following his covid-19 quarantine. 

Roland Sallai had the best chance for the visitors during in even opening quarter in Bielefeld. Santamaria broke down the left before crossing perfectly to the Hungarian, whose low-driven effort beat Bielefeld goalkeeper Stefan Ortega, but brushed narrowly past the left-hand post (17’). 

Lack of threat at both ends

SC were the dominant side on paper, enjoying 62 percent possession in the opening 30 minutes, but that control didn’t translate into more chances in the final third. 

Sallai continued to look Freiburg’s biggest goal threat, combining well with Haberer (26’), Jeong (37’) and captain Christian Günter (45’), but coming unstuck against a stubborn Bielefeld defence each time. 
Florian Müller also had little to do, but was saved confidently when called upon shortly before the break (39‘).

Bielefeld take the lead

Streich made no changes at the break and, though his side were the more active once again early on, the struggles in front of goal continued. A result of both solid defending and frequent disruption in the game. 
Jonathan Schmid from a cross (50‘), Günter from a corner (51‘) and Sallai with a pass that just lacked the right weight (52‘) all came close to the opening goal, as was Santamaria, who was denied by Ortega (64‘).

But if you don’t take your chances, you run the risk of coming unstuck at the other end. As Guus Til and Nils Petersen waited to enter the fray, the hosts took the lead in unfortunate fashion from a corner. Santamaria put his body on the line to block Masay Okugawa’s shot, but in turn deflected past Müller for an own goal (68’). 

Freiburg leave empty 

Not long after, the ball landed in the back of the Freiburg net once again (74’). This time, it was Bielefeld’s Joakim Nilsson who finished the job, but after consultation with VAR, the goal was ruled offside to keep Freiburg’s hopes of a late comeback alive. Unfortunately, those hopes were not realised. 

"The first half was decent. Unfortunately, we weren’t threatening enough. In the second half, we weren’t strong enough in our challenges. We deserved to lose," Christian Streich analysed at full time.
With 37 points, SC currently lie in tenth place. The next opponents are FC Schalke 04 at the Schwarzwald Stadion next Saturday at 15:30 CEST.