SC Freiburg won against Olympiacos Piraeus with its best performance of the season. Michael Gregoritsch, who had been scoreless up to that point this season, shone with a hat trick.
With an early goal, Michael Gregoritsch gave the home team from Freiburg the lead. The Austrian made it 1-0 in the third minute, and just five minutes later Gregoritsch headed the score to 2-0 for SC Freiburg. That’s not all: after 35 minutes, the striker also scored a flawless hat trick to make it 3-0. Kiliann Sildillia made it 4-0 in the 42nd minute before the break. Ritsu Doan made the final score 5-0 in the 77th minute. With the win, Freiburg leads the table in Group A. The duel with West Ham United on the next matchday will now decide who will win the group.
For Freiburg, the game started like a picture in the sold-out Europapark Stadium. After just three minutes, a deflected cross from Maximilian Eggestein fell at the feet of SC striker Michael Gregoritsch, who scored from eleven meters to make it 1-0. Last weekend, the Austrian appeared very contrite due to his goal drought (no goal in 14 games) in the current season. Against Olympiacos Piraeus, the SC striker got rid of his goalless frustration in just five minutes. Gregoritsch was able to celebrate again in the eighth minute. After a corner from Ritsu Doan, Gregoritsch broke away from his opponent perfectly and scored with a header to make it 2-0.
Gregoritsch hat trick for them History books
SC Freiburg, where Jordy Makengo surprisingly made his starting eleven debut, did not allow the completely overwhelmed Greeks from Olympiacos Piraeus to come into play. The Breisgauer dominated the game and could have led even higher through Gregoritsch. The Freiburger, however, aimed a Makengo cross from six meters to the right (20th minute). Almost a quarter of an hour later, the interaction between Makengo and Gregoritsch worked significantly better. The extremely strong Makengo crossed again to Gregoritsch, who nodded in from around seven meters: the 3-0 for the SCF and at the same time the fastest hat trick in the history of the Europa League.
But the people of Baden were not satisfied with that. Shortly before the half-time whistle, Kiliann Sildillia even increased the score to 4-0 (42nd minute) after a great pass from Michael Gregoritsch. The preliminary decision was already made before the break in a game in which Olympiacos Piraeus had only had a single shot on goal up to that point. The Freiburg fans fully deserved to say goodbye to their team at half-time with a standing ovation.
Freiburg also improved after the break
Even after the break, the SC continued where they left off before the break. The guests from Athens didn’t get into the game at all, instead the lively Freiburg team even pushed for the fifth goal. The Greeks simply couldn’t cope with the agile hosts both on the wings and in midfield. Huge gaps kept opening up into which the Freiburg wingers in particular were able to push.
After 65 minutes, Christian Streich made three substitutions. Junior Adamu, Manuel Gulde and Merlin Röhl came in for three-packer Michael Gregoritsch, central defender Philipp Lienhart and attacker Lucas Höler. Shortly afterwards, Olympiakos could have reduced the score to 1:4 with their first chance of the game, but the Greeks were unable to take advantage of a brief confusion in the Freiburg penalty area (69th minute). The next goal was scored on the other side. Junior Adamu broke through at the halfway line, drove the ball to the corner of the penalty area and then played into the middle. The ball intended for Grifo landed deflected at the feet of Ritsu Doan, who finished with his left to make it 5-0. Olympiacos Piraeus was literally falling apart.
A draw against West Ham is enough to win the group
As a result, Freiburg dominated the game, with Noah Atubolu preventing the only chance for Greece to score a consolation goal with a brilliant save. In the end, the sports club deservedly won 5-0 and, with a draw in the last group game against West Ham United on December 14th, can even win the group and thus secure direct entry into the round of 16. The Londoners narrowly won 1-0 in the parallel game against Backa Topola and are now level on points with SC Freiburg in second place.
