After the swatter against Bayern Munich, VfL Bochum really wants to score points against Freiburg – and they have improved a lot. But the people of Breisgau narrowly win the game and move up to second place in the table.
Freiburg coach Christian Streich blew hard and was visibly relieved. The sports club trembled in the continuous rain to their third win in the fourth game and stormed to second place in the Bundesliga. The Europa League participants won against VfL Bochum, who were still pointless, 1-0 (0-0) in the evening and with nine points is the first pursuer of leaders Bayern Munich at least until Saturday. Vincenzo Grifo scored the winning goal in the 48th minute. Although VfL showed a great improvement compared to the 0:7 against Bayern, they are still waiting for a sense of achievement after many missed chances.
“We failed to decide the game beforehand. In the end we got lucky in two or three actions. But we worked hard for that. It’s extremely important to get games like this going in a season,” emphasized Freiburg captain Christian Günter DAZN and striker Nils Petersen said: “It is also a quality to win in the end to zero. That is also the luck of the fit.” The hosts should have taken the lead in the first half. However, they failed again and again because of themselves or goalkeeper Manuel Riemann. However, the goalkeeper was not blameless for the crucial goal conceded.
Because Riemann became a tragic figure at the SC lead goal. The 33-year-old initially conceded a penalty when he dropped the ball and then pulled down Roland Sallai’s shorts. Riemann saved Grifo’s penalty and his subsequent header, but was powerless on the Italian’s third try.
“It’s very annoying. We’re back with zero points. We deserved a point in terms of performance. You don’t get more chances against Freiburg. We played well, but what’s the point?” said Kevin Stöger and Simon Zoller said: “It’s bitter when you put up a big fight. It’s important that we get to what characterizes VfL Bochum.”
Bochum coach Thomas Reis only had five days to get the performance against Bayern out of the minds of his players. He seemed to have found the right words in the short week of training. Bochum – changed to four positions – started much more actively in front of 32,800 spectators. There was no trace of uncertainty. Gerrit Holtmann, who was called up again from the start, boosted the offensive game of the guests. He tested SC goalkeeper Mark Flekken (9th) and three minutes later Takuma Asano was denied by the Dutch international goalkeeper.
But then Freiburg turned up the heat without Maximilian Eggestein, who had surgery on his broken wrist. Captain Christian Günter stole away behind the VfL defense but couldn’t get the ball past Riemann (10′). The pace picked up. After Cristian Gamboa misplayed a throw-in despite several warnings, Ritsu Doan missed Freiburg’s lead (18′). The VfL pros came under more and more pressure and were lucky that Freiburg also missed a triple opportunity (22nd).
The game turned into a slide game. Clean passes were almost impossible because of the thunderstorm over the Europa-Park stadium, so Sallai and Holtmann decided to shoot from a distance, but they didn’t bring the desired success. Only seconds after the restart, video referee Guido Winkmann reported to referee Marco Fritz after Riemann’s faux pas. Bochum fought bravely and were unlucky twice when Holtmann hit the post (65th) and crossbar (84th). In addition, the guests awarded other top-class opportunities. But Freiburg also had the chance to make a preliminary decision. Michael Gregoritsch (72′) and Nils Petersen (81′) also hit the target.
