BReally high in the league, historic success in the cup – SC Freiburg has refined its excellent season so far and, after 2013, is in the semi-finals of the DFB Cup for the second time in its club history. With the hard-fought and ultimately happy 2-1 (1-1, 0-0) after extra time at VfL Bochum, coach Christian Streich’s team lived up to their role as favorites and took revenge for the unfortunate Bundesliga defeat at the same venue a good three months earlier .
In front of 10,000 spectators in Bochum, Nils Petersen (51st minute) and Joker Roland Sallai (120th) scored the deserved victory on Wednesday evening, which gave the guests additional income of around two million euros. In contrast, the Revierklub missed their first place in the semi-finals in 34 years three weeks after the marveled 4-2 Bundesliga win over FC Bayern. Even Sebastian Polter’s equalizer (64′) couldn’t change that.
Inspired by fireworks at the start of the game outside the stadium, Bochum got off to a better start. Already in the 5th minute, the fast Gerrit Holtmann had a great chance to take the lead when he headed past the goal from close range after a cross from Christian Gamboa.
On the other hand, Freiburg found the game slow. Worried about an opposing counterattack, they initially placed great value on goal security and only sporadically looked for the way to the Bochumer Tor. And because VfL also made many bad passes in the build-up, most of the action took place between the two penalty areas, where both teams fought passionate duels.
Bochum active, Freiburg successful
Only in the 26th minute did the guests demonstrate for the first time how the recently stable VfL defense can be cracked. However, Vincenzo Grifo, served by Lukas Kübler, hesitated too long in a promising position before completing the game and thus robbed his team of a possible 1-0.
VfL remained the more active team, but found it difficult to create opportunities. This encouraged Freiburg to adopt a somewhat more offensive approach. This courage almost paid off shortly before the break. With the help of Bochum defender Armel Bella Kotchap, Petersen (38′) had a formidable counterattack chance. But the attacker shot too quickly and didn’t cause any problems for VfL keeper Manuel Riemann with his harmless shot.
However, Petersen did better six minutes after the restart. Because Riemann was only able to parry a shot from Kevin Schade, the ball fell at the feet of the 33-year-old former national player, who shot in from a few yards to give Freiburg the lead.
The game picked up speed considerably. Bochum pushed hard for the equalizer – and were immediately rewarded. A cross from Elvis Rexhbecaj, worth seeing, was headed into the goal by Polter, who came on at half-time. In the extra time, only Freiburg cheered.
