It was a 90-minute rollercoaster ride for the 1,200 travelling SCF fans and the home supporters in Stuttgart. Both coaches were visibly worn out by the full-time whistle. “We opted to play courageous football and had a fantastic start to the game,” said head coach Christian Streich. “Injury forced us to change things up at half time. We defended set pieces superbly and managed to survive the initial pressure at the start of the second half. We had some luck on our side today as well.”

Pellegrino Matarazzo was understandably in a less buoyant mood with his post-match analysis: “We didn’t start the game well and were 3-0 down in no time. We had some good energy after that and got back within one before the break, but we didn’t create enough goalscoring opportunities in the second half.”

SCF made just one change for the derby compared to the 2-1 win over Borussia Dortmund, with Lukas Kübler replacing Jonathan Schmid at right-back – the Frenchman was sitting out as a precaution after a close personal contact tested positive for coronavirus. The tactic setup remained the 4-4-2 formation that had caused BVB so many problems.

Pellegrino Matarazzo named an unchanged Stuttgart side, despite their 4-0 defeat in Leipzig last weekend. There was also a reunion with two former Freiburg players in Marc-Oliver Kempf and Florian Müller.

3-0 up after 30 minutes

Memories of last season’s trip to the Mercedes-Benz-Arena soon came to mind as Freiburg repeated their blistering start from that 3-2 win last September. There were less than three minutes on the clock when space opened up on the left flank for Christian Günter to put in a cross, and Wooyeong Jeong arrived to power a header inside the near post, making it 1-0 (3’). 

Goal number two wasn’t far behind either. Müller came out to punch away an SCF corner, but his clearance only went as far as Jeong, who rifled an unstoppable half-volley into the net to grab his and Freiburg’s second (9’). Stuttgart struggled to digest the quickfire double and it wasn’t until the 19th minute that they gave Mark Flekken his first test of the day. He was up the challenge though, demonstrating brilliant reactions to push Mateo Klimowicz’s close-range effort around the post.

Freiburg remained the dominant side overall and could have added a third in the 23rd minute when Flekken’s long throw-out created a chance for Grifo that went begging. It was 3-0 just five minutes later though; Roland Sallai’s delivery into the box found Lucas Höler, who directed his header past Müller (28’).

Stuttgart battle back

More similarities to last season’s win in Stuttgart soon appeared, as again Freiburg failed to comfortably see out their three-goal lead. The hosts produced a quickfire double of their own before the interval to reduce the deficit to one. Konstantinos Mavropanos scored a fine solo goal to open VfB’s account for the day (45’), before Hamadi Al Ghaddioui’s header (45+2’) no doubt changed the mood significantly for Streich’s half-time team talk.

The boss reacted with a triple substitution at the break and even a change of formation. Manuel Gulde, Janik Haberer and new signing Maxi Eggestein replaced Yannik Keitel, Nicolas Höfler and Vincenzo Grifo in what became a 3-4-3 setup.

For all of SCF’s dominance in the first half, it was very much Stuttgart who were now dictating the play. The hosts were playing with much more energy and physicality, as the match suddenly hung in the balance.

Nervy closing stages

The chances didn’t dry up for either side in the second half as the game kept its frantic tempo from the first 45. Kübler was in the right place at the right time to make a last-ditch block ahead of Al Ghaddioui (50’), while Roland Sallai stung Müller’s palms with a powerful shot from range (52’).

It wasn’t until the closing half an hour that the game slowed down a little, with the action now limited more to midfield rather than the two penalty areas. It wasn’t too surprising though, as Freiburg started to focus on remaining compact at the back in order to defend their narrow lead.

Stuttgart were forced to open up more as time ticked away, leaving space for SCF to break into. Sallai (73’) and Eggestein (75’) both had opportunities on the counter, but neither were able to take advantage. Much like during last week’s win over Dortmund, the Freiburg fans were set for a nervy ending. Long ball after long ball was being pumped into the visitors’ box, leading to a number of heart-in-mouth moments, but some resilient defending and aerial strength meant that Flekken wasn’t called into real action. 

Kevin Schade could have wrapped up victory with a Freiburg fourth in stoppage time, only to be denied from close range by Müller (90+3’). It proved to be the final chance of the game though, as SCF secured back-to-back 3-2 wins in Stuttgart.

Christian Streich’s men can now relax for the international break knowing there are a healthy seven points on the board from their opening three Bundesliga games. The action returns on 11th September, when 1. FC Köln are the visitors to the Dreisamstadion from 15:30 CEST.

Photo: Achim Kelle