Friday’s friendly lasted all of 17 minutes, before a thunderstorm and hail gave referee Martin Wilke no choice but to delay the game. Up to that point there had only been one noteworthy chance, when Derry Scherhant got down the left-hand side in the fourth minute and crossed towards Philipp Treu in the centre, however the ball never found its target.

FC Lucerne have made solid start to their Swiss Super League campaign, taking eight points from five games, putting them in fourth place. Lucas Höler was the only survivor in the starting XI from Sunday’s 4-1 defeat to Köln, with Philipp Lienhart, Cyriaque Irié, Yuito Suzuki, Jonathan Manzambi and Bruno Ogbus all away on international duty.

After a delay of around 20 minutes, the conditions on the pitch improved enough so that the game could be resumed – much to the annoyance of Freiburg’s back-line. Straight from the restart, a loose pass in the build-up dropped into a puddle and was picked up by Lucerne’s Sinan Karweina, who rounded Freiburg goalkeeper Florian Müller and opened the scoring (19’).

Freiburg quickly looked to get back into the match, the soundtrack to which was provided by noise coming from a nearby hip-hop festival. The first attempt came from distance, struck by Scherhant in the 23rd minute, before Höler failed to force his effort from 13 yards out past Vaso Vasic in the Lucerne goal (29’). A powerful effort from the right-hand side from Beste got a murmur out of the ten or so journalists present, however the score stayed at 1-0 as the teams went into the break.

Freiburg score three after the hour mark

A half time change saw Eren Dinkci replace Höler up front and almost immediately get himself an assist: the 23-year-old used his pace to get into the Lucerne penalty area before laying the ball off to Osterhage, who hit his shot from close range straight at Vasic (47’).

SCF had the better chances in the second half and were rewarded for their hard work after an hour. Adamu rounded the keeper and made it 1-1, after a beautiful pass from Chicco Höfler (60’). Just two minutes later, Jordy Makengo found Beste, who – with some help from Vasic – made it 2-1 to the hosts. Another three minutes after that, Osterhage made it three with a strike from the edge of the box following a corner (65’). 

Freiburg were now clearly dominating the game, as substitute Philipp added another after some great work from Adamu (75’). A mix-up in the Freiburg defence gave Matteo Di Giusto a completely free chance which he took to make it 4-2, just two minutes before the end of normal time.

“We’ve discussed certain things with each other. It’s important for us to improve our defending step by step,” said head coach Julian Schuster after the game. “This was naturally about improving our strength at the back. This was pretty good today.” SCF’s next test comes on Saturday, 13th September (15:30 CEST), at home in the league against VfB Stuttgart.

Freiburg’s team: Müller – Treu (62’, Kübler), Rosenfelder (31’, Ginter), Jung, Makengo (63’, Günter) – Osterhage (80’, Zelic), Höfler (63’, Eggestein) – Beste (63’, Philipp), Höler (45’, Dinkci), Scherhant (63’, Grifo) – Adamu  

Goals: 0-1 Karweina (19’), 1-1 Adamu (60’), 2-1 Beste (62’), 3-1 Osterhage (65’), 4-1 Philipp (75’), 4-2 Di Gusto (88’)