KDefender Vincenzo Grifo knocked TSG 1899 Hoffenheim out of the DFB Cup and made SC Freiburg dream of winning their first national title. The 28-year-old Italian scored two goals in the 4-1 (2-0) round of 16 on Wednesday evening (10th minute/36th/hand penalty) and thus decided the Baden-Württemberg duel in favor of the Breisgauer early on.
In front of only 500 allowed spectators, TSG only briefly hoped for an own goal by returnee Nico Schlotterbeck (53rd). Kevin Schade (55th) and Ermedin Demirovic (67th) scored the final score. A late second goal by Hoffenheim by Ihlas Bebou was disallowed for offside.
At Hoffenheim, the experiment of leaving striker Andrej Kramaric on the bench failed. The Kraichgauers, who are otherwise so offensively strong, seemed harmless and hardly created any chances. The sports club, which also benefited from the return of goalkeeper Mark Flekken and Schlotterbeck in the important victory, now has a great opportunity to win something in the cup, which was severely decimated after the elimination of Bayern, Dortmund and Leverkusen. The quarterfinals will take place on March 1st and 2nd.
In a game that was fast-paced from the start, Italian national player Grifo set the first exclamation mark. He completed a clean counterattack by the guests with a remarkable flick. TSG was much too slow in moving backwards. Things got emotional after a good half hour when TSG coach Sebastian Hoeneß had a heated argument with Freiburg’s pros after a foul.
They could celebrate a few moments after Schlotterbeck shot Hoffenheim’s outstretched arm Bebou – referee Robert Schröder decided on a penalty, which in turn Grifo safely converted. So the preliminary decision was made before the break. The ripped off Grifo symbolized the extremely efficient people of Freiburg. The few Hoffenheim fans yelled loudly for Kramaric to be substituted quickly.
The Croatian and striker Dabbur then came into play after the break, with Hoeneß correcting his original line-up. That helped for a while. Kramaric was directly involved in several scenes: he also played a key role in initiating Schlotterbeck’s own goal, which wanted to clear the ball from the line. But the joy about the goal didn’t last long, almost in return, Schade scored to make it 3-1 and thus restored the old gap. Demirovic’s goal finally brought the decision.
