Fourth game, fourth defeat: VfL Bochum suffered the next setback in the Bundesliga after the bitter 7-0 loss to FC Bayern Munich. The team coached by Thomas Reis lost 0-1 (0-0) at the start of the fourth matchday after an open exchange of blows at SC Freiburg. While Bochum stays bottom of the table, Freiburg jump to second place, at least for one night.
Vincenzo Grifo (48th) gave Freiburg the lead. Bochum’s Manuel Riemann had parried his penalty earlier in front of 32,800 spectators in the Europapark Stadium, but Grifo was successful in the second subsequent shot. Bochum’s final offensive was not rewarded with the equaliser.
“It’s very annoying. We deserved a point in performance. We played a good game, but what’s the point?” Bochum’s Kevin Stöger said on “DAZN”: “If you go into the cabin now, you can see blank faces.”
Reis changed his team four positions compared to the swatter against Bayern. Jacek Goralski, Gerrit Holtmann, Erhan Masovic and Konstantinos Stafylidis all started. “It’s important that we believe in ourselves,” Reis said before the game: “So far, that wasn’t in the DNA of how we want to play football. We have to implement our style of play.”
VfL Bochum starts boldly
Bochum, who started the season with zero points and 3:12 goals as badly as ever, started courageously, attacked Freiburg early and had the first chances to score through Holtmann (9th) and Takuma Asano (12th).
But as a result, the hosts took control more and more and got closer to the Bochum goal. First, Freiburg’s Ritsu Doan (18th) missed the lead, then coach Christian Streich’s team missed a triple chance (22nd), at the end of which Nicolas Höfler shot just past the right from close range.
Bochum now withdrew more and gave the more alert Freiburg team, who had to do without the injured midfielder Maximilian Eggestein, more time in the game. But Michael Gregoritsch (30th) also got stuck with a long-range shot at Riemann.
VfL Bochum and SC Freiburg in aluminum bad luck
After the change of sides, Freiburg immediately took command again. When Roland Sallai fell to the ground in the penalty area, referee Marco Fritz initially allowed play to continue, but then decided on a penalty after looking at the pictures. Despite good saves, Riemann was unlucky with this one. Two minutes later, Grifo just missed a free-kick.
Freiburg now kept the pressure and should have extended the lead through new signing Gregoritsch, but the striker didn’t get any pressure behind the ball (62′).
Bochum had to recover briefly, but then almost hit back. But Holtmann only hit the post with his powerful long-range shot (65′). Freiburg’s Nils Petersen (81′) narrowly missed the second goal with a shot at the crossbar – that almost took revenge: Holtmann (84′) also only hit the woodwork.