Before kick-off, Ritsu Doan - who left Breisgau in summer after three successful seasons at the club - was given an official farewell. The question of who would replace the tricky Japanese winger for the upcoming 90 minutes was answered by Jordy Makengo’s name on the match report. The Frenchman took Christian Günter’s place in the starting XI. There were three more changes to the side that started the goalless draw against Mönchengladbach, with Derry Scherhant, Lukas Kübler and Johan Manzambi replacing Vincenzo Grifo, Philipp Treu and the injured Patrick Osterhage respectively.

The visitors’ head coach, Dino Toppmöller, also made three alterations in comparison to their last game, a 3-0 defeat against FC Bayern. Aurèle Amenda, Rasmus Kristensen and Farès Chaibi started in the places of Aurélio Buta, Ellyes Shkiri and Jean-Mattéo Bahoya.

The perfect start

To mark the 50th anniversary of the foundation of SC’s women’s side, the men’s team sported a special kit that the women also wore last week in their 3-2 victory over SGE. SCF fans who saw it as a good omen did not have to wait long for their suspicions to be confirmed. With just over two minutes on the clock, Johan Manzambi pounced on an inaccurate pass from a Frankfurt defender and played Derry Scherhant through on goal. The striker slotted the ball into the back of the net to mark his first start for the club in perfect style (2’).

After the opener, the game exploded into life. It didn’t take long for Frankfurt to find their way back into the game and start threatening Noah Atubolu in the Freiburg goal. SCF responded by flying into tackles and playing with freedom on the counter and in their build-up play. The best opportunity in the first quarter of an hour fell once again to Scherhant, whose volley from 13 yards out flew over the bar, but would have been ruled out regardless due to a handball.

Burkardt bags brace

Three minutes later, the away side exhibited their widely feared attacking ruthlessness for the first time. Even though the ball landed at Jonny Burkardt’s feet somewhat fortunately, the striker didn’t waste the opportunity and smashed the ball past Atubolu and into the far corner to make it 1-1 (18’).

The game remained chaotic up for the remainder of the first 45. First, Lucas Höler nodded a Beste corner into the arms of Kanu Santos (26’), then Philipp Lienhart was a whisker away from connecting with a cross in the six-yard box (28’). At the other end of the pitch, Atubolu was called into action, having to parry another shot from Burkardt to safety just after the half an hour mark (33’).

With their next attack, SGE turned the game on its head. Burkardt reacted quickest after the ball was played into the six-yard box and beat Atubolu with another deflected shot to put his side in front on Sunday afternoon (38’). It was a sucker punch for Freiburg who hadn’t given the opposition many chances to that point and still went into the half-time break trailing 2-1.

Pressure from SCF

Shortly after the restart, Manzambi and Niklas Beste carved out a chance to level things up. Lukas Kübler crossed the ball towards the back post from midfield, where Manzambi’s header was narrowly off target and Beste was unable to turn the ball in or create another opportunity from an acute angle (48’).

In the following minutes, SC continued to threaten through Manzambi, Kübler and Scherhant and looked more lively after coming out of the dressing rooms than Frankfurt. The opposition struggled to find space and didn’t pose a threat to SCF offensively. 

Even though Freiburg’s promising passage of play led to danger in the Frankfurt box time and again, the visitors remained narrowly in front with 15 minutes still to play. The SCF coaching staff had already used four of the available five substitutions at this point, with former Frankfurt man Igor Matanovic, Vincenzo Grifo, Yuito Suzuki and Christian Günter all entering the fray. The latter was making his 350th Bundesliga appearance for SC.

Grifo with a late equaliser

In the dying embers of the game, SCF - fired up by the home fans’ impressive support - threw everything they had at Frankfurt to come away with a draw. When Grifo stood over a free-kick from a promising position in the 87th minute, everyone was expecting the winger to deliver a cross into the box. However, the substitute opted to go for goal, catching Kaua Santos in the Frankfurt goal off guard and finding the back of the net. The equaliser sparked delirium in the stands.

In added time, Matthias Ginter had the chance to win the match for Freiburg. But, on this occasion, Frankfurt’s number one reacted magnificently to deny the centre-back. Shortly afterwards, the referee brought the exhilarating encounter to a close. Thanks to the late goal, there were a lot of happy faces among the SCF players, coaching staff and fans.

Freiburg are back in action at home on Thursday. SC will welcome FC Utrecht to the Europa-Park-Stadion for a Europa League clash which is scheduled to kick off at 21:00 CEST.

Photo: Achim Keller