Next exclamation mark in the cauldron: The impressively sovereign SC Freiburg continues to ride the wave of success in the Europa League.
In the atmospheric duel against the Greek record champions Olympiakos Piraeus, the second-placed team in the Bundesliga won 3-0 (2-0) like a top team and thus put themselves in an excellent position in the fight for progress.
Nicolas Höfler (5th) and Michael Gregoritsch (25th/53rd) scored for coach Christian Streich’s team in the Karaiskakis Stadium and, after the resounding victory at the start against Azerbaijan’s champions Qarabag Agdam (2:1), made for a dream start to the season group stage. The brace against FC Nantes is now waiting for the Breisgauer, first of which is the home game on October 6th.
“Overall a good performance by the team, very disciplined. And in the end we deserved to win,” said Streich: “We already knew that Olympiakos was under pressure. We decided to go for it very early on. The team did that very well .”
After a pyro show by the Greek fans, the Freiburgers started furiously in the fog. In the Sport-Club’s first Europa League away game since November 2013, Daniel-Kofi Kyereh (1st) fired the first warning shot before Höfler rewarded the guests with a header for the spirited start.
Freiburg determines what happens
The Freiburg team, who had already started against Borussia Mönchengladbach (0-0) in the league, didn’t give up, took control and created a clear chance against the shockingly weak hosts. Gregoritsch, who had previously hit the post (13′), shot out the well-deserved two-goal lead at half-time after fine preliminary work from Kyereh.
Streich’s team continued confidently after the break, Freiburg determined what happened against the regular top class club at will. Gregoritsch scored again from close range after a header from national player Matthias Ginter and thus brought some calm to the frenetic Olympiakos fans, who had caused a two-minute interruption with pyrotechnics in the first half.