Late goals hand Hertha defeat in Freiburg
There were three changes to the starting XI selected by Tayfun Korkut, two of them being enforced. Poland U21 goalkeeper Marcel Lotka made his Bundesliga debut between the sticks in place of the Covid-positive Alexander Schwolow and captain Dedryck Boyata made a return from injury to replace the suspended Marc Oliver Kempf. In midfield, Suat Serdar also returned from Coronavirus and came in for Santiago Ascacíbar, who started on the bench. Stevan Jovetić did not train fully in the build-up to the game, but was able to start. Alongside substitute goalkeeper Nils Körber, Anton Kade and Cimo Röcker sat on the bench, with the trio of Maximilian Mittelstädt, Jurgen Ekkelenkamp and Dongjun Lee also starting as substitutes after recovering from Covid.
Lotka shines, Grifo penalty the difference at half time
There was a minute’s silence before the game, as a show of solidarity with the people of Ukraine after the week’s events in the country. The game started with an early test for our debutant goalkeeper as Lokta made a fantastic fingertip save to deny Vincenzo Grifo from a dangerous free-kick (6’). Unfortunately, he was powerless to stop the opener finding the net six minutes later. Referee Sven Jablonski decided that a Linus Gechter challenge inside the penalty area was a foul, VAR chose not to intervene and Grifo fired the penalty high into the net (12’). Freiburg’s goalscorer went close once again after 26 minutes, but his rebound cannoned off the post and went wide. Then, Tayfun Korkut’s side went close for the first time, but Jovetić’s deflected effort flew wide, and Gechter headed wide from a resulting corner (28’). Shortly after that, Lotka showed his class again as he went full-stretch to deny Maxi Eggestein’s powerful drive (34’). There were several chances for our side in the latter stages of the first half, the biggest of these coming from an absolutely fantastic Jovetić through-ball, which found Peter Pekarík, but the right-back’s effort was equally superbly parried by Mark Flekken in the SCF goal (38’). As Fredrik Bjørkan, Vladimír Darida and Marco Richter lacked precision and clinical finishing from several counter attacks, the half time whistle blew with the Blue-Whites narrowly behind.
Late goals seal the deal
The second half started in a similar way in terms of the atmosphere inside the Europa-Park Stadion, the Herthaner in the away end making all the noise. That seemed to give our team some energy, as they created the first half-chance of the game as Ishak Belfodil headed just wide from a Richter cross – the Algerian was just offside (55’). Richter then fired wide after a fine piece of set-up play from Lucas Tousart, making his 50th Hertha appearance (57’). The Blue-Whites really started piling on the pressure, and had one of their best chances of the half in this period as Flekken did brilliantly to palm Richter’s close-range effort over the bar (62’). With the final stages of the game looming, Korkut was forced into a change, as Gechter came off with what looked like a thigh injury, being replaced by U23 player Cimo Röcker for his Bundesliga debut – Dongjun Lee also came on for Darida (69’). This double change was followed nine minutes later by another, as Korkut brought on fresh legs up front in the form of Jurgen Ekkelenkamp and Davie Selke, for the dangerous Richter and Belfodil. Christian Streich’s side sat deep before coming forward in the final ten minutes, Grifo firing a shot narrowly wide with ten to go. Then, two goals in three late minutes sealed the win for the home side, first through a Kevin Schade rebound (83’) and then a Lucas Höler tap-in (83’). The final whistle blew on a bitter defeat for Hertha.
SC Freiburg: Flekken; Kübler, Lienhart (89‘ K. Schlotterbeck), N. Schlotterbeck, Günter (C); Höfler, Eggestein; Sallai (64‘ Schade), Jeong (82‘ Demirovic), Grifo (82‘ Weißhaupt); Petersen (64‘ Höler)
Hertha BSC: Lotka; Pekarík, Gechter (69‘ Röcker), Boyata (C), Bjørkan; Darida (69‘ Lee), Tousart; Richter (78‘ Ekkelenkamp), Serdar; Jovetić, Belfodil (78 Selke)
Goals: 1-0 Grifo (12‘ Pen.), 2-0 Schade (83‘) , 3-0 Höler (86‘)
Referee: Sven Jablonski
Yellow cards: Höfler; Jovetić, Bjørkan
Attendance: 21,000