It had been 103 days since SCF’s last competitive home game and this UEFA Conference League play-off clash. The fans had clearly been eagerly awaiting the first match of the season at the Europa-Park Stadion. The majority of the home support were dressed in white and made themselves heard from the off. They had plenty to be excited about too, with their side having started the season with two wins from two.

SC continued their strong early-season form on Thursday evening and took the lead with their very first attack. Maximilian Eggestein slipped a fine pass through to Derry Scherhant, who kept his cool one-on-one with Motherwell goalkeeper Alex Paulsen to give the hosts the lead on the night. “We’d spoken about looking to play in behind straight away whenever the opportunity was there,” said Julian Schuster. “The team did that well.” That goal gave SC a comfortable 4-1 aggregate lead.

The Freiburg coaching staff made seven changes to the starting XI that had beaten Fortuna Düsseldorf 5-1 in the first round of the DFB-Pokal. Christian Günter, Max Rosenfelder, Philipp Treu, Derry Scherhant, Yannik Engelhardt, Cyriaque Irié and Igor Matanovic came in for Jordy Makengo, Philipp Lienhart, Lukas Kübler, Patrick Osterhage, Vincenzo Grifo, Niklas Beste and Lucas Höler. Osterhage was not included in the squad due to muscular problems. Motherwell were without the suspended Martin Moormann, who had been sent off in the first leg.

SC on top but Motherwell equalise

In front of 31,000 spectators, SC controlled proceedings and had registered two-thirds of the possession after half an hour. In the 14th minute, Scherhant, who had also impressed during the first leg in Scotland, sent a dangerous ball across goal from the left but could not find a teammate. Seven minutes later, he went close to a second after a good pass from Matanovic, only for Ewan Wilson to make a last-ditch block for the Steelmen.

Although a second SCF goal had looked more likely, it was Motherwell who struck next. Left-back Emmanuel Longelo was afforded space around 25 yards from goal and struck a powerful, if centrally placed, effort that beat Mio Backhaus (22’). At the other end, Yuito Suzuki fired narrowly wide from the right of the area (33’). The game became more even from that point, with both sides getting into promising positions, but the score remained 1-1 at half time. With virtually the final kick of the half, Irié rattled the crossbar with a powerful effort from the centre of the box.

SC also created the first good chance of the second half. Irié played Suzuki in on the right, but his low shot from 15 yards out went narrowly wide of the far post (53’).

Motherwell see red again

The visitors continued to hold their own after the restart, but then made life harder for themselves. Just as in the first leg, a Motherwell defender was sent off shortly before the hour mark for denying a clear goalscoring opportunity. This time it was Jake Girdwood-Reich, who brought down Scherhant after he was beaten for pace by the Freiburg attacker (57’).

Alex Paulsen did brilliantly to keep out the resulting free kick from Scherhant, but the Motherwell 'keeper could do nothing about SC’s next two set pieces. Scherhant delivered both corners, first finding Matanovic to head home (60’) and then Irié, who made it 3-1. Ginter then struck the post shortly afterwards (67’). “Even when you’re playing against ten men, scoring goals is never a given. The team did well to do just that,” said Schuster.

By then, the contest was well and truly over. Five minutes from time, substitute Keisuke Goto added his name to the scoresheet, pouncing on a miscued defensive header in the box to find the net with a well-placed finish. “I’m very happy with the way we’ve started in the two cup competitions,” said Schuster. “Now it’s time for regular Bundesliga action, and I’m really looking forward to that.” SCF begin the league season with a home game against SV Werder Bremen on Sunday (15:30 CEST).

Photo: Stephan Eckenfels