At the start of coach Christian Streich’s emotional farewell tour, SC Freiburg has retained its hopes of an international starting place. Twelve days after announcing his self-chosen job termination at the end of the season, the Breisgau team gave their coach a confident 3-0 (1-0) win at Borussia Mönchengladbach and remains in the race for the potentially important seventh place in the table. After two competitive defeats, the guests earned a deserved victory thanks to goals from Michael Gregoritsch (7th minute), Merlin Röhl (47th) and Ritsu Doan (57th).
Gladbach, without a win in their fifth competitive game in a row, disappointed in front of 53,000 spectators in Borussia Park. The hosts therefore missed the jump out of the endangered zone and have to continue to look down.
“We want to see you fight,” the frustrated supporters chanted after the game; many fans had left Borussia Park long before the final whistle. “At the moment the mood has changed a bit. I have complete understanding for the fans. The results were not enough,” said captain Jonas Omlin after his comeback after a long injury break. “I imagined it differently,” said the goalkeeper.
Freiburg’s coach had to initially suppress his emotions and react to the tense personnel situation. The first line of central defenders with former Gladbacher Matthias Ginter and Philipp Lienhart were not available, and Robert Sallai was also injured. Streich had to make an unusual four changes. Top goalscorer Vincenzo Grifo initially only had a place on the bench.
The Gladbach team had their captain and goalkeeper Jonas Omlin back on the field for the first time after a seven-month injury break, and he was immediately caught off guard. An unsuccessful cross from Maximilian Eggestein landed at Gregoritsch, who pushed the ball from close range into the far corner to give the guests a 1-0 lead. The Austrian continued his run this week. In the international match against Turkey on Tuesday he scored three goals in a 6-1 win.
The hosts initially dominated the game despite being behind and had good scoring opportunities through Joe Scally and Rocco Reitz. Nico Elvedi also narrowly failed with a header from a corner (31′), but the offensive lacked the final impact. In addition, there was often a risk to their own goal when the guests quickly switched to attack from their compact and variable defensive line, in which Yannik Keitel and Lukas Kübler did a good job.
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Immediately after the break, Röhl took advantage of Breisgauer’s first chance and scored from a half-right position from the corner of the penalty area into the near corner to make it 2-0. Even with this goal, returnee Omlin didn’t look good in the Gladbach goal. Doan crowned Freiburg’s confident performance with the goal to make it 3-0 after a one-two with Eggestein.
