With precious few chances at either end, Werder Bremen had the slightly better opportunities before the break, while SCF came closer after the restart. 

"On the whole it was a very disciplined performance. In the first half we had one or two situations where we could have really created something, but we were a bit too sloppy. In the second half we started to find our rhythm more and more and had chances to score. We would have deserved to win it, but if you don’t score in a game you have to be happy with a draw," said head coach Christian Streich. 

His counterpart at Werder Bremen: "It was a decent game. We would have liked to win, but we’re happy with our performance. It would have been good to see a bit more tempo, but the draw is absolutely a fair result." 

Two changes to the starting XI

A week after beating Dortmund 2-1 with a back four, the Freiburg coaching reverted back to a three-centre-back system and made two personnel changes to the starting eleven.   

Keven Schlotterbeck was ruled out at short notice with muscle problems, so Philipp Leinhart (right-centre) was joined by Dominique Heintz (left-centre) and Manuel Gulde (central) to complete the CB trio. Lucas Höler started this game on the bench. 

Strong at the back, lacking in attack

On a sunny afternoon with sub-zero temperatures, the visitors slowly began to build on their solid defence and proved to be the better team in the opening stages. Chances in the first half were few and far between, however. 

The only two notable opportunities for Streich’s men fell in the 11th and 42nd minutes, with Nicolas Höfler at the heart of both. For the first chance, Höfler set up Jonathan Schmid for an attempt on goal from wide. In the 42nd Höfler himself had a go from what proved to be a too tight angle. 

At the other end, SCF had goalkeeper Florian Müller to thank for thwarting Werder’s only chance of the half from Milos Veljkovic (36’). 

No changes at the break

There were no personnel changes at the break, but for a tactical tweak in defence. Lienhardt took control in the middle, as Gulde shifted across to the right. Vincenzo Grifo passed up a golden opportunity to open the scoring shortly before the hour mark, but his effort flew narrowly wide of the post. Höfler and substitute Petersen came even closer in the closing moments; Höfler’s aggressive effort was initially parried by Jiri Pavlenka, but Petersen was unable to control the rebound (77’). Grifo, captain Christian Güntner and Schmid also combined late on, but failed to find the breakthrough in front of goal (83’).  

A point to take home to Freiburg and one that brings the season tally up to 31 points from 21 games, leaving the team in eighth place in the table. Next Saturday, SC welcome Union Berlin to the Schwarzwald Stadion. 

Photo: Fabian Bimmer