Win against West Ham
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Joker Michael Gregoritsch makes SC Friborg dream of reaching the quarter-finals of the Europa League for the first time. After two failed attempts, coach Christian Streich’s team beat West Ham United 1-0 (0-0). Gregoritsch rewarded Freiburg for its courage on Thursday evening with the winning goal (81st minute).
The two teams had already met in the group stage. West Ham won 2-1 at Freiburg in October and 2-0 at home in mid-December. The return match in London is scheduled for March 14. In the meantime, the sports club, which has not won in six league matches, will travel to VfL Bochum on Sunday (3:30 p.m./DAZN).
Wide awake and still on defense, the home team hardly let anything happen in the first half. Defender Matthias Ginter had explicitly warned against the enthusiasm of the seventh-placed team in the Premier League. “It’s a high-level team, especially offensively. It will be important that we defend well and compactly,” said the national player.
But for long periods there was no sign of key player Lucas Paquetá or the dangerous Jarrod Bowen, scorer of a hat-trick in West Ham’s last home game. Freiburg controlled the game and had almost 80 percent of the ball in the first quarter of an hour – the result alone left a lot to be desired.
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Nevertheless: Building on the 2-2 draw in the duel against FC Bayern, the Breisgau team acted with confidence. The arrival of Lucas Höler defused Lukasz Fabianski – the best chance of the match after half an hour. Shortly before, West Ham manager David Moyes had turned away from the match in annoyance after the umpteenth failure of his team’s preparation.
The 60-year-old’s expression continued to darken even after the match resumed. Because the sports club continued to put pressure on and scored the first dangerous goal thanks to an acrobatic kick from Roland Sallai (48th). But the guests also became more and more determined. Former Stuttgart defender Konstantinos Mavropanos headed narrowly wide after SC goalkeeper Noah Atubolu misjudged a corner (53rd). Paquetá’s header was also inaccurate (62nd) and Bowen was pushed back by Atubolu (65th).
Streich reacts and brings on Gregoritsch, decisive scorer in the second leg of the playoffs against RC Lens. It paid off. The Austrian only stayed on the field for eleven minutes before striking again. In the end, Freiburg had to tremble – but according to the video (Site notre bureau spécialisé)age, the referee did not impose a handball penalty on the guests.
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