13th matchday: Victory in Mainz: Freiburg ends mini-crisis

Coach Christian Streich shouted his relief at the final whistle and cheered as if SC Freiburg had just won the championship.

With the 1-0 (0-0) win at FSV Mainz 05, the Breisgauers ended their small crisis of results in the Bundesliga of four games without a win and at the same time inflicted their first defeat on their rivals under new coach Jan Siewert. In front of 30,300 spectators, Michael Gregoritsch scored the goal of the day in the 69th minute for Freiburg, who moved up to eighth place in the table with 18 points.

Mainz remains penultimate in a relegation zone with eight points. The 05ers had previously recorded one win and three draws under Siewert, who took over from Bo Svensson at the beginning of November. “It’s difficult to put aside because I think this defeat was undeserved. From Mainz’s point of view, you have to ask yourself how can a game like that lose,” said sports director Martin Schmidt on the DAZN streaming service and complained about the poor exploitation of opportunities.

Match winner Gregoritsch “simply happy”

“When you saw how Christian Streich was happy at the end, you could see what it meant for him and how lucky they were and how unlucky we were,” said Schmidt.

Freiburg’s goalscorer Gregoritsch was happy about his first goal of the season in the Bundesliga. “Somehow the ball went through two (opponents) today, maybe it wouldn’t have gone through two weeks ago. I’m just happy that it worked out like that today,” said the Austrian.

Batz for hundredweight in the Mainz goal

Because Mainz goalkeeper Robin Zentner had to miss out due to a finger injury, Daniel Batz made his second Bundesliga appearance between the posts after eleven and a half years. The 32-year-old made his debut in May 2012 – wearing the Freiburg jersey.

Initially, SC keeper Noah Atubolu came into focus. The 21-year-old saved his team from falling behind early on a header from Ludovic Ajorque (4th) and later made a strong save against Brajan Gruda. Shortly beforehand, Ajorque had once again missed Mainz’s lead when he chased the ball just over the Freiburg goal from five meters.

In the middle of the first half, the guests, who had shone 5-0 against Olympiakos Piraeus in the Europa League during the week, had their first chances. Ritzu Doan failed with a shot past Batz, who had luck on his side a little later when Gregoritsch shot off the post.

Ginter had to leave the field injured after 24 minutes

Between these two scenes, the guests had to accept a personnel setback in the fast-paced and entertaining game. Central defender Matthias Ginter had to leave the field injured after 24 minutes and Manuel Gulde came on to replace the national player.

In stoppage time in the first half, the Breisgauers sniffed the lead again. After a wide cross, Gregoritsch got to the ball in front of Batz, but only headed it onto the outside post. On the other hand, Atubolu saved against Sepp van den Berg. So it went into the break goalless.

Mainz presses, Freiburg scores

After the substitution, Mainz pressed, but the redeeming goal refused to come despite several opportunities. During this phase, Freiburg hardly got out of their own half and did not carry out any organized offensive actions.

The guest tour therefore came as a surprise. Gregoritsch came to the ball in the penalty area by chance and gave Batz no chance with a low shot into the corner. In the final phase, the home team threw everything forward again, but they were unable to equalize.