Just three days after their successful Conference League play-off outing away at Motherwell F.C., Freiburg were back in action, this time in the DFB-Pokal. At Düsseldorf's Merkur Spiel-Arena, with its colourful seats occupied by some of the 3,100 travelling SC Freiburg supporters as well as the home crowd, the visitors made five changes to the previous starting XI.

Lukas Kübler, Philipp Lienhart, Patrick Osterhage, Vincenzo Grifo and Lucas Höler all came into the side for the cup clash. Against the recently relegated third-tier side, who had started life in a new division with two defeats, SC Freiburg immediately asserted themselves, but also had to remain alert defensively. Düsseldorf were not afraid to play on the front foot, and Tim Oberdorf had the first chance of the game with a shot from 20 yards out in the eighth minute.

The stadium was rocking for the Saturday night affair, with Fortuna backed loudly by their supporters and every tackle and turnover greeted with a huge roar. The Freiburg fans matched them for noise and were almost ready to celebrate in the 11th minute, but Fortuna goalkeeper Louis Lord tipped a header from Matthias Ginter over the bar. Ginter had scored twice against Motherwell, and this was Freiburg's first good chance in what was the centre-back's 250th competitive appearance for the club.

Osterhage and Höler combine to put SC ahead

The hosts' game plan was built around counter-attacks, with the third-tier side sitting deep as a result. SC Freiburg remained patient and were rewarded with the opening goal in the 18th minute. Osterhage beat his man inside the box, cut the ball back from the byline and found Höler in the six-yard box, and the forward poked the ball over the line to get the scoring started.

Just under ten minutes later, Yuito Suzuki came close to making it 2-0 following a neatly worked attacking move. It started with Niklas Beste winning possession out on the left and culminated in a perfectly weighted pass from Maximilian Eggestein into the box - and right into the run of Suzuki. The Japan international was left one-on-one with Düsseldorf's goalkeeper, but Lord stepped up for his side and made an excellent save.

By half-time, there had been three clear-cut chances and the one successful strike. Mio Backhaus, meanwhile, had not been called upon by the opposition attackers.

Substitutes do their job to perfection

The second half began with three solid chances for SCF. First, Grifo's shot flew over the bar, before Ginter found himself with the chance to shoot following a one-two between Eggestein and Suzuki, only for him to be denied by a crucial challenge. Höler also got a shot away early in the second half but was denied by Lord. Freiburg were doing their best to find that second goal.

After 65 minutes, however, it was still 1-0, and Düsseldorf were beginning to believe they might find an equaliser whenever they managed to get forward, even if those opportunities were few and far between. Dominique Heintz sent a shot several metres over the bar, while Andreas Müller came close with an effort that went just wide of the post.

Lord produced another outstanding save in the 67th minute to prevent Freiburg from doubling their lead - the question of Fortuna's best player on the night was really being put beyond doubt. Grifo had curled the ball superbly towards goal with his right foot, only for the goalkeeper to deny him. That was the end of the evening for both Grifo and Suzuki, with Derry Scherhant and Igor Matanovic coming on. Both substitutes made an immediate impact. Scherhant delivered from the right towards the far post, where Matanovic rose the highest to head home for 2-0 in the 71st minute.

Goals galore in the final act

Less than three minutes later, SCF made it 3-0. Scherhant was involved again, this time crossing into Höler. The goalscorer found Kübler in a central position, who used his shoulder to turn it home. The three-goal lead didn’t last long, however. In the 76th minute, Fortuna pulled one back from a corner as Fabian Schleusener headed home from close range to make it 3-1.

Matanovic's goal appeared to have opened the floodgates. After a long period of patience, the goals were now coming ten a penny. Matanovic released Jordy Makengo down the left, and the full-back fired home to make it 4-1. Despite a wholly impressive performance, Lord was powerless to stop the left-footed strike. The game was already decided by that point, but Matanovic completed his brace in stoppage time to cap off a memorable evening in the DFB-Pokal. Once again, it was a header from a corner.

After the final whistle, the Croatian striker was named Man of the Match. "Derry put in a great cross before my first goal. A lot went right for us today," he said. Head coach Julian Schuster was also pleased with his side's performance: "We’ve had two competitive matches and won both of them. That's good. The only thing I would be critical of today is that we allowed them too many chances to level when it was only 1-0. Still, though, the team were motivated from the outset, and I'm pleased that we picked up where we left off on Thursday."