PLAYER RATINGS | SC Freiburg 0-1 Union Berlin – Freiburg lose pace in their chase for Europe thanks to a late Woo-Yeong Jeong goal | OneFootball

European hopefuls Freiburg met floundering Union Berlin at the Europa-Park Stadion on Sunday afternoon, with the aims for the remainder of the season clear for both clubs.

Julian Schuster’s Freiburg sat in 8th place going into the weekend, which could be enough for European football, but with a win would keep the pressure firmly on Eintracht Frankfurt in front. Steffen Baumgart’s side, meanwhile, has found life difficult over the last couple of months. Having seen themselves drop from challenging for the European places, they’re now nervously looking over their shoulder, keen to pull away from the big group of clubs battling relegation.

Schuster made a total of five changes from Die Breisgauer’s 1-0 defeat to Genk in the Europa League on Thursday night. Christian Günter, Jan-Niklas Beste, Patrick Osterhage, Vincenzo Grifo and Yuito Suzuki all dropped to the bench in place of Jordy Makengo, Maximilian Eggestein, Lucas Höler, Cyriaque Irié and Derry Scherhant.

Following last weekend’s tough defeat at home to Werder Bremen, Baumgart was forced into making four changes, after injury to Frederik Rønnow, and suspensions for András Schäferand Leopold Querfeld, Aljoscha Kemlein was also dropped to the bench. Bundesliga debutant Matteo Raab replaced Rønnow in goal, Christopher Trimmel, Livan Burcu and Tim Skarke also came into Baumgart’s starting XI.

Despite plenty of early possession for the visitors, it was Freiburg who had the first real opportunity of the afternoon when some nice skill from Irié worked some space for Philipp Treu to pick out Maximilian Eggestein just inside the box. Freiburg’s captain on the day sent his effort just over the bar.

With the hosts trying to regain control of possession, Andrej Ilić dispossessed Bruno Ogbus in a dangerous area and quickly let fly on Atubolu’s goal. The German stopper was relieved to see the Serb’s effort strike the side netting.

Freiburg continued to probe for the remainder of the half and fashioned a couple of half-chances through Scherhant and Johan Manzambi, but failed to find the breakthrough before the half-time whistle.

The second half began in much the same fashion, and apart from a couple of minutes of pressure from Freiburg, both teams were really struggling to make any inroads on the opposition’s penalty areas.

The best chance of the game arrived just shy of 70 minutes when again Ilić won a headed duel with Ogbus, the ball fell kindly to Alex Král, but the Czech failed to really work Atubolu in the Freiburg goal.

As the clock ticked down and the fourth official indicated nine minutes of stoppage time, Freiburg looked the more likely to score, but the visitors had a sucker punch up their sleeve. Substitute Woo-Yeong Jeong picked the ball up on the right wing, cut inside of Christian Gunter, and let fly, finding the inside of the far post brilliantly.

The hosts continued to fight, and with three minutes of stoppage time to go, Ogbus’s header from Manzambi’s cross fell agonisingly wide of the target.

After it looked like Matteo Raab would be forced off through injury in the dying embers, the fourth official indicated another five minutes to be added on after the initial nine. Raab picked himself up and carried on, knowing one of his outfield teammates would be forced to take the gloves for the final moments of the game should he be forced to leave the field.

With time fading, Jan-Niklas Beste took it upon himself to let fly from distance with no passing options available. The German’s left-footed effort produced a simply outstanding save from Raab, who won his team the three points in that moment.

Union held on to secure their first away victory in five attempts and lifts Die Eisernen back into the top half of the table and likely clear of any relegation danger.

Freiburg 0–1 Union Berlin | Player Ratings

Freiburg:

Noah Atubolu (5) – Philipp Treu (5), Matthias Ginter (6), Bruno Ogbus (5), Jordy Makengo (6) – Maximilian Eggestein (6), Johan Manzambi (6) – Cyriaque Irié (6), Lucas Höler (6), Derry Scherhant (6) – Igor Matanović (6)

Others: Yuito Suzuki (6), Vincenzo Grifo (-), Jan-Niklas Beste (-), Christian Günter (-)

Union Berlin:

Matteo Raab (7) – Danilho Doekhi (7), Stanley N’Soki (6), Derrick Köhn (6) –Christopher Trimmel (6), Janik Haberer (7), Rani Khedira (6), Livan Burcu (6) – Tim Skarke (6), Andrej Ilić (6), Ilyas Ansah (6)

Others: Alex Král (6), Woo-Yeong Jeong (7), Aljoscha Kemlein (-), Josip Juranović (-), Tom Rothe (-)

GGFN Man of the Match | Matteo Raab (7)

After what was, for the most part, a pretty poor game of football for the standards that these two teams usually set, Matteo Raab was the hero for the away side. After injuring himself in stoppage time, he produced a match-winning save with virtually the last act of the game.

With his right hand patched up by the Union physios, he deservedly was the centre of the celebrations in front of the travelling Union fans after full-time.

GGFN | Harry Good