The door to the knockout round of the Europa League is open, and the winter in international business is already certain: SC Freiburg is still fully on track with its European mission.
With the seriousness recently missed by coach Christian Streich, the Bundesliga soccer team won 5-0 (1-0) against Serbian runner-up TSC Backa Topola on the fourth preliminary round match day.
Thanks to goals from Merlin Röhl (24th), Maximilian Eggestein (56th), Noah Weißhaupt (69th), Junior Adamu (80th) and Ritsu Doan (90th + 2), the sports club now has nine points Account, third place and at least participation in the Conference League after the turn of the year are secured. Against Olympiacos Piraeus on November 30th, Freiburg can, like last year, make it to the knockout stages of the Europa League.
In the last seven competitive games, including the 3-1 win in Backa Topola two weeks ago, the Breisgau team had always been behind. Streich therefore demanded that his professionals “work more seriously again” defensively. But after a risky back pass from national player Matthias Ginter (1st), the SC almost fell behind again.
After the shocking moment, Freiburg radiated dominance against the guests, who were largely unknown internationally, Lucas Höler (4th) and the recently strong Weißhaupt (5th) tested Veljko Ilic early on. When the 21-year-old Röhl scored his first European Cup goal in his second appearance, the visiting keeper was powerless because the ball bounced strangely due to a mistake.
Afterwards, the spectators also saw one-way street football, Freiburg had the game fully under control – and it was unlucky that Röhl (38th) hit the post. There was hardly any offensive action from Backa Topola, but that changed after the break. U21 national goalkeeper Noah Atubolu was wide awake when the Serbs first shot on goal (49th).
After that, Freiburg dominated the action again, the pressure on Backa Topola increased by the minute – Eggestein’s 2-0 win after a nice one-two with Vincenzo Grifo was well deserved. And Freiburg didn’t let up: After losing the ball in the opponent’s penalty area, Weißhaupt followed up strongly and, like Adamu a little later, rewarded himself with his first European Cup goal.