“You’ve got a real Altach legend with you,” said the SCRA media officer, pointing to Felix Roth, who’s exchanging handshakes and chatting with fans in the stands. Roth, who joined SC Freiburg this season as an individual coach, played for Altach from 2013 to 2017 and clearly left his mark. His photo still hangs in the club office, and a mention of Guimarães” or “Belenenses is all it takes to start a conversation about European adventures with the former striker.

Altach only narrowly avoided relegation last season and are now just one week away from the start of their competitive campaign. As expected, the hosts made a lively start. A high press from Marlon Mustapha nearly allowed Vesel Demaku a clear shot after eight minutes, but Lukas Kübler intervened brilliantly. The next big chance also fell to Altach: SC keeper Florian Müller got down well to deny Ousmane Diawara and keep the score level after 15 minutes.

Dinkci opens the scoring

Freiburg were more clinical at the other end. In the 19th minute, Derry Scherhant found space down the left, beat his man, and squared for Eren Dinkci to calmly slot home from close range and make it 1-0. The goal settled the visitors, and they pushed forward with further efforts from Patrick Osterhage (25’) and Scherhant (29’) before the first break.

Altach stepped up their press in the second half-hour and frequently disrupted Freiburg’s rhythm, though neither side created clear chances. Kübler’s follow-up attempt from a Ginter header ended in the net on 57 minutes, but the referee spotted a foul in the build-up. The initial XI, which included debutant Yuito Suzuki, went off after 60 minutes with the score at 1-0.

The second half saw further debuts, with Cyriaque Irié and Igor Matanovic introduced. Freiburg came flying out of the blocks: Vincenzo Grifo’s snapshot was just tipped around the post by Altach keeper Dejan Stojanovic. The game opened up, with chances at both ends and SC goalkeeper Jannik Huth called into action several times.

In the final quarter, Freiburg made more changes, bringing on Ritsu Doan, Maximilian Philipp and Michael Gregoritsch. It was a Christian Günter cross aimed for Gregoritsch in the 99th minute that ended up deflected into the net by an Altach defender for 2-0.

Vincenzo Grifo almost added a third after a neat one-two with Lucas Höler (110’), but the final goal came from Maximilian Philipp. The forward fired a crisp shot into the bottom corner from 16 metres out five minutes before the end to seal a 3-0 win. Head coach Julian Schuster was satisfied with the team’s first friendly of the training camp: “It was a good test in perfect conditions. The opponent is a week away from the start of their season, so they’re already in good shape physically – exactly the kind of challenge we need right now. We saw some of the things that define our game, and of course there are still areas that need work. That’s fine. What matters is that we’re progressing.”

After this second pre-season friendly, SC Freiburg will return to their training base in Schruns. They’ll face 2. Bundesliga side Dynamo Dresden on Friday (25/07, 14:00 CEST). The match will be streamed live and free on the club website and YouTube channel.

SC Freiburg starting XI, first half: Müller – Kübler, Ginter, Jung, Makengo – Dinkci, Osterhage, Höfler, Scherhant – Suzuki, Adamu

SC Freiburg starting XI, second half: Huth – Treu, Schopper, Lienhart, Günter – Irié (90’ Doan), Eggestein, Muslija (90’ Philipp), Grifo – Höler, Matanovic (90’ Gregoritsch)

Goals: 0-1 Dinkci (19’), 0-2 own goal (99’), 0-3 Philipp (115’)

Referee: Philipp Mayer

Attendance: 2,300