As in recent weeks, the main question from a Freiburg perspective before kick-off was how the team would cope with the demands of the past few days and the switch from European action back to Bundesliga routine. 90 minutes later, the joy was clear to see on the faces of both players and fans after a late and hard-earned home win. “We’re very happy that we managed to win the game. It’s hugely important that we keep doing that in the Bundesliga as well. We’ve done it against Mainz, St. Pauli and now Heidenheim – huge credit to the team,” said Julian Schuster after the final whistle, reflecting on the importance of the result.

Five changes for SC

Just three days after reaching the Europa League semi-finals, Freiburg’s coaching staff shuffled the pack once again. Lukas Kübler, Bruno Ogbus, Christian Günter, Derry Scherhant and Lucas Höler all came into the starting XI following the 3-1 win in Vigo. Philipp Treu, Philipp Lienhart, Jordy Makengo, Niklas Beste and Yuito Suzuki dropped to the bench.

The visitors – under major pressure in the battle for survival after Wolfsburg’s win and St. Pauli’s draw – made two changes following their victory over Union Berlin. Niklas Dorsch started as the man off the striker in place of Stefan Schimmer, while Arijon Ibrahimovic came in on the right for SC loanee Eren Dinkçi – before the game, a major stem cell donor registration drive was held for his girlfriend Cinja, who is battling leukaemia, as well as many others facing the same fate.

Manzambi strikes first

Frieburg began brightly and with purpose, setting their pressing line a few yards deeper than usual and creating two promising early transition moments. Vincenzo Grifo was wrestled down fairly in the referee’s eyes as the attacker Italian drove towards goal (2’), before Igor Matanovic just failed to pick out the lurking Höler with a threaded pass into the box (4’).

The visitors from the Ostalb, who remain rooted to the league table, quickly solved their early marking issues, but still had to survive Freiburg’s first big chance after 13 minutes. Grifo cleverly squared the ball to Manzambi inside the area, but the youngster could only hit the side netting from a tight angle. The same part of the goal then came into play at the other end moments later when Marvin Pieringer headed the wrong side of the post from three yards.

The game continued to open up midway through the first half. Matanovic sent the ball just wide after a Grifo corner, before Matthias Ginter had to make a last-ditch intervention inside his own box to deny Pieringer at the other end (19’). The breakthrough finally came in the 24th minute when Manzambi drove into the left side of the area and saw his deflected effort loop over Diant Ramaj and into the net

A little over ten minutes later, the home fans were almost celebrating again. Grifo’s curling effort – also deflected – had a dangerous flight on it, but only crashed against the angle of post and bar. Heidenheim kept pushing to work their way back into the game, but Freiburg’s well-organised back line generally stopped them before they could get into the final third.

Curled finish brings about the equaliser

Heidenheim, who had made one change at the break, looked more threatening after the restart. The visitors searched for gaps around Freiburg’s penalty area and benefited more than once from the hosts failing to make their breakaway attacks count and quickly giving the ball away again.

SC did not allow many clear-cut chances for a long spell, but the equaliser in the 59th minute was no more than Heidenheim deserved. Substitute Budu Zivzivadze found himself with far too much space inside the right-hand side of the box and the Georgian made full use of it, curling a fine effort from 13 yards into the top-left corner.

Eggestein restores the advantage

Although SC regained more control after the leveller, some of the players on the pitch were clearly starting to tire. With around 20 minutes left, Freiburg’s coaching staff responded to the heavy workload by bringing on three fresh legs in Yuito Suzuki, Niklas Beste and Nicolas Höfler.

A Ginter overhead kick and a fierce Suzuki effort, both over the bar, signalled the start of the final quarter of an hour. The balance of play then evened out before the hosts found a winner. Eggestein’s strike to make it 2-1 also needed a decisive deflection off a defender to beat the goalkeeper, but nobody in the celebrating crowd cared one bit (83’).

Including stoppage time, Freiburg still had to come through another 11 minutes, a header that drifted just wide and a dangerous effort from the completely unmarked Stefan Schimmer that Bruno Ogbus did brilliantly to block, before the home side were able to celebrate a hard-fought win in front of the Südtribüne.

The home victory takes SC above Eintracht Frankfurt and up to seventh in the table. Before league action continues against Borussia Dortmund, Freiburg are away to VfB Stuttgart in the DFB-Pokal semi-finals on Thursday evening at 20:45 CEST.

Photo: Achim Keller