It was six years since a Bundesliga match had been played in Paderborn but that long wait finally came to an end with the arrival of Freiburg, who had also been the opponents for the hosts’ previous home victory in the German top flight. This time around, however, it was the visitors who would be celebrating come the final whistle. SCP made Freiburg work hard for the points throughout the duration of the 90 minutes. “We knew we’d have to put in a huge amount of effort if we wanted to come away with anything here, and that’s exactly how it played out,” revealed Julian Schuster following proceedings.

Both coaching teams opted for a singular change to the line-ups fielded in their opening league fixtures. Philipp Treu replaced Lukas Kübler for the away side, while deadline-day arrival Rayan Philippe started in place of Stefano Marino for the hosts.

1,500 travelling supporters were in fine voice inside a sold-out Home Deluxe Arena, hoping Freiburg could build on their perfect start to the season, with four competitive wins already in the bag.

Lively start

Both goalkeepers were called into action inside the opening five minutes. Mio Backhaus and his opposite number Nahuel Noll were both equal to well-struck low efforts from Marvin Pieringer (2’) and Igor Matanovic (5’) respectively to prevent an early breakthrough.

Just as they had in their goalless draw with 1. FSV Mainz 05, the newly promoted side played with confidence, varied their approach in the final third and went strongly into their challenges. SC Freiburg also settled quickly and repeatedly looked to profit from turnovers high up the pitch. That made for an entertaining contest in which the away team had the better of proceedings.

Eggestein puts SC ahead

The first – and ultimately only – goal was not long in coming. Derry Scherhant and Matanovic had both gone close in the preceding minutes before Maxi Eggestein put the visitors ahead in the 26th minute. Both he and then Yannik Engelhardt saw efforts from inside the penalty area blocked, before the ball fell kindly at waist height for the former, who guided a half-volley into the bottom left-hand corner from 11 yards. It remained 1-0 at the break.

There were nervy moments for both sets of supporters shortly after the restart. Scherhant first sent a free kick from 19 yards narrowly past the top corner (48’), before Pieringer suddenly found himself clean through at the other end. In a battle between two summer signings, Freiburg’s number one came out on top with a brave piece of goalkeeping to deny the striker (50’).

Paderborn turn up the pressure

That big opportunity sparked a spell of sustained Paderborn pressure, with the away side struggling to play out of their own half. Pieringer (61’) and Laurin Ulrich (64’) both sent efforts narrowly wide of Backhaus’ goal. “We were fortunate that our mistakes in possession weren’t punished. It was good that we managed to regain control of the game after that,” explained Schuster.

The visitors threatened again in the 66th minute when Jordy Makengo drove forward, only for Noll in the Paderborn goal to snuff out the danger. Freiburg were able to stem the tide somewhat after that.

The visitors’ slender advantage was still intact with ten minutes left to play. Roared on by the home crowd, Paderborn committed bodies forward in search of an equaliser, but aside from an acrobatic effort from Santiago Castaneda (85’) that Backhaus held comfortably, the Freiburg goal was not seriously threatened again. “We’re delighted with the win against a very good newly promoted side who will make life extremely difficult for a lot of teams this season,” said Schuster.

SC Freiburg welcome Borussia Mönchengladbach to the Europa-Park Stadion next Saturday. Kick-off is at 15:30 CEST.

Photo: SC Freiburg