For 53 minutes, the travelling Breisgau side more than held their own against the team sitting third in the table, before the hosts decided the contest within the space of three minutes. “We started the game well, allowed very little and won the ball back well. What we have to criticise is that we didn’t use the space well enough in transition moments. We weren’t dangerous enough going forward. It’s frustrating that we’ve ended up on the losing side through two set-piece goals,” Julian Schuster reflected after the final whistle.

Freiburg’s head coach was forced into changes at the heart of the defence in Leipzig, with both centre-back positions needing to be reshuffled. Anthony Jung and Bundesliga debutant Bruno Ogbus came in for Philipp Lienhart (abdominal muscle injury) and Matthias Ginter (illness). There was also one further change from the home win over HSV, with Patrick Osterhage starting in place of Vincenzo Grifo.

After Storm Elli had forced the postponement of Leipzig’s scheduled away game at St. Pauli, the Saxony side enjoyed a slightly longer winter break than SC. RBL coach Ole Werner made two changes following their 3-1 defeat to Leverkusen before Christmas, with Ridle Baku and Assan Ouedraogo replacing Kosta Nedeljkovic and Conrad Harder.

Few chances at either end

“The statistics have no influence on our approach,” Schuster had explained before kick-off, despite his side’s modest record at the Red Bull Arena. Freiburg backed up those words with a brave start. High, aggressive pressing from the front three of Johan Manzambi, Yuito Suzuki and Lucas Höler saw the visitors win plenty of balls high up the pitch and keep Leipzig largely away from their own goal during the opening 15 minutes.

Although Leipzig gradually enjoyed more of the possession, the first clear chance of the match still fell to the visitors. Maximilian Eggestein met Suzuki’s free-kick with a header in the 21st minute, but directed it straight at Péter Gulácsi.

It took another ten minutes before Noah Atubolu was called into action at the other end. The Freiburg goalkeeper produced a superb save to deny Nicolas Seiwald from ten yards. The reshuffled back line otherwise allowed little until the break, and after a low-key but disciplined first half from both sides, the teams went in level at the interval.

Double blow after the break

Freiburg resisted falling behind for seven minutes after the restart, but then Leipzig struck twice in quick succession. First, Willi Orban rose highest to meet David Raum’s cross and headed home from just outside the six-yard box (53’). Just three minutes later, Romulo doubled the lead with a header of his own, following an impressive initial save from Atubolu (56’).

Having competed well up to that point, the two goals disrupted Freiburg’s rhythm. Leipzig pushed for a third and went close when Christoph Baumgartner struck the post in the 67th minute.

SC weathered that spell of pressure but were unable to create any meaningful attacking moments of their own late on. It finished 2-0, though captain Christian Günter still took positives from the performance: “We played a good first half. It hurts when two set pieces decide the game like that. But we can still build on this display – it wasn’t a bad away performance from us.”

Photo: SC Freiburg