Even before kick-off, thousands upon thousands of fans transformed the stands at the Europa-Park Stadion into a sea of red and white. As both teams emerged from the tunnel, an impressive tifo was unveiled, stretching to all corners of the ground and setting the stage for a successful evening of Europa League football.

Freiburg, who had made an unbeaten start to the competition with one win and one draw to their name, made four changes to the side that started in the 2-2 draw against Eintracht Frankfurt. Christian Günter and Philipp Treu lined up as full backs in place of Jordy Makengo and Lukas Kübler. Up front, Vincenzo Grifo and Yuito Suzuki got the nod over Derry Scherhant and Lucas Höler.

The visitors’ head coach, Ron Jans, opted for two changes to the team that won 3-1 against Volendam at the weekend. Miguel Rodriguez and Can Bozdogan replaced Milano Jonathans and David Min.

The spectacular scenes before kick-off were followed by SCF dominating possession in the opening stages. They threatened to take the lead twice through Philipp Treu and Maximilian Eggestein. In order to break through the well-organised Dutch defence, the Freiburg players looked to be fluid and swap positions up and down the pitch.

First goal for Suzuki and free-kick mastery from Grifo

This approach paid off for the home side in the 20th minute. Vincenzo Grifo sent Christian Günter through with a pass from the baseline in his own half. The captain then found Suzuki in the box with a precise delivery who smashed the ball into the roof of the net from around eight yards out to give Freiburg the lead.

SCF kept the pressure on Utrecht after going 1-0 up. Five minutes after the goal, it was Treu who vacated his natural position and popped up in the away side’s penalty area. He teed up Junior Adamu at the near post who didn’t trouble the keeper with his shot. One minute later, FCU keeper Vasilis Barkas had to tip Suzuki’s volley over the crossbar.
SC’s third promising opportunity in a short timeframe was a strange one. After a mesmerising solo run into the box, Johan Manzambi’s shot first hit the bar, then the post, and finally – much to Manzambi’s chagrin – rebounded back into play.

The visitors struggled to make an impression in the first half, having serious problems with Freiburg’s pressing and strength in the tackle. Noah Atubolu was more than equal to their only real chance of the half (34’).

At the other end of the pitch, SCF extended their lead shortly before the break. After a foul in Niklas Beste, Grifo stood over a free kick in a central position and roughly 25 yards out. Just as he had done a few days earlier against SGE, he scored directly from the set piece to make it 2-0 at half time.

Dominance after the break

SC remained the more active side at the start of the second 45. Suzuki tested Barkas following a rapid counterattack (48’), before Adamu lined up a shot from a similar position after a corner, though fired over (50’). Eggestein was also denied from close range due to an excellent reaction save from the opposition keeper (59’).

With more than an hour gone on the clock, the eighth-place team in the Eredivisie started to get forward more and press with a considerably higher line in search of a way back from 2-0 down. Since, at the same time, SCF began to take fewer risks and restricted themselves to attacking on the break, the balance of the game didn’t shift much.

The new approach did give rise to a few half chances for Utrecht, though they had no real opportunities to get on the scoresheet. When the referee brought the game to a close after three minutes of added time, the sea of red and white of SCF fans continued to ripple in the stands of the dimly lit Europa-Park Stadion.

Photo: Achim Keller