Frankfurt/Main (dpa) – “Joker” Nils Petersen has stung again and could pave the way for the lucrative European football business for SC Freiburg.
“The win is worth its weight in gold, we would have taken a point, but three is better,” said the 33-year-old striker after scoring his 33rd wildcard goal in Sunday’s 2-1 Bundesliga game at Eintracht Frankfurt.
The Breisgauer are fifth in the table with 48 points, four points ahead of TSG 1899 Hoffenheim and 1. Union Berlin and only three behind league fourth-placed RB Leipzig. “There are only five games, including two home games, and only a few points left,” said Petersen about the chances of moving into the Europa League or even the Champions League.
Vincenzo Grifo gave Freiburg the lead (27th minute). After Filip Kostic equalized (54′), Petersen (69′) scored the winning goal with a header seven minutes after being substituted on from a Christian Günter free-kick. “We practiced it several times during the week – and it worked,” explained Freiburg coach Christian Streich. “It’s great that he did exactly the right thing.” Petersen only said: “That was the luck of the fit.”
For Streich, his striker is an exceptional player. “I’ve never coached a player who has such a gift, an intuition for knowing where the ball is going,” said the coach. “He almost always runs right, in terms of the probability of where the ball will go.” That is a great quality that all great strikers have. “There are few in the Bundesliga who can do it so well.”
Petersen gave Streich his 105th Bundesliga win for SC Freiburg. The coach surpassed his successful predecessor Volker Finke, who had 104 wins with the Breisgau team.
For Frankfurt, the Petersen goal could have destroyed the desired European Cup qualification. “We’re still in the Europa League, so I’m not thinking about next season now,” said Eintracht coach Oliver Glasner after the “brutal defeat”. After all, the Hessians are fighting for a place in the semi-finals at Spanish top club FC Barcelona on Thursday. The first leg ended 1-1. “Now our very clear goal is to get into the semi-finals,” said Eintracht sports director Markus Krösche after the 2-1 draw against Freiburg. “We’ll go there and beat them.”