SC Freiburg said goodbye to the World Cup and winter break on Sunday (11/13/22) with a 4-1 win against Union Berlin. The Breisgauers benefited from a hat trick by Vincenzo Grifo within just 20 minutes. Freiburg winters as second in the table.
The Grifo show began after four minutes when the ball touched Christopher Trimmel’s arm in the penalty area and the Freiburg player sunk the penalty due into the visitors’ box. Union goalkeeper Lennart Grill had just as little chance when Grifo threw a pass from Michael Gregoritsch into the goal from a short distance during a counterattack (6′). In the ninth minute of the game, the guests briefly felt hope: Nicolas Höfler had brought down Sheraldo Becker in the hosts’ 16 – but Robin Knoche put the ball on the left post.
Grifo hat trick – and Leite sees red
The Berlin nightmare continued after only 19 minutes of play: Diogo Leite rushed after Ritsu Doan, who started half right, but didn’t manage to stop the Korean fairly. Next penalty, next brilliant shot from Vincenzo Grifo: hat trick! In addition, top referee Deniz Aytekin showed the Berliner the red card for preventing a clear scoring opportunity. Maximum penalty for the player – much more for Union Berlin this evening.
What option did Berlin coach Urs Fischer have in this situation? In view of being three goals behind and outnumbered, he apparently opted for the “prevent debacle” variant. But this only worked to a limited extent: Before the break, Gregoritsch converted a pass from Doan with a remarkable lob to make it 4-0 (45th).
Consolation goal just before the end
Freiburg took it easy in the second half of the game and only came dangerously in front of the Berlin goal after a good quarter of an hour through Gregoritsch’s next chance – this time unsuccessfully.
The pleasant correction of the result from Berlin’s point of view came late: Matthias Ginter held Danilho Doekhi in the penalty area – the fourth penalty was the result. This time, substitute Sven Michel grabbed the ball and converted safely.
Freiburg has to go to the Autostadt
After the winter break, SC Freiburg will be away to VfL Wolfsburg (Saturday, January 21, 2023 at 3:30 p.m.). Union hosts TSG 1899 Hoffenheim at the same time.