In celebration of the end of the away misery, the Freiburg fans belted out a classic with a sense of humor. “Never again in the second division,” echoed the SCF players from the guest block of the Ruhr Stadium.
After the 2-0 win at VfL Bochum, coach Christian Streich’s team has 40 points and thus the mark required by an old football adage for staying up in the league. However, after 21 games, which is why the immediately following song by the supporters was much closer to the Freiburg reality than the relegation battle. “Up, up, up to the Champions League,” they sang.
Freiburg makes the 40 points early
“Now the goal has been reached for the time being,” said captain Christian Günter and smiled. “Everything that comes now is an encore. We stay hot!” Such statements should please his always modest coach Christian Streich.
“We’ve never had a score this early,” said the 57-year-old. As expected, Streich did not want to commit himself to specific new goals. “We’re in good shape – exceptionally well,” he said and issued the motto: “You’ll get the flowers anyway if you do it well. But you don’t have to talk about it so much, you have to work well to get them.”
The Freiburgers could actually receive the flowers this season in the form of the Champions League qualification. Fourth place and only three points less than FC Bayern Munich: That alone shows the quality and consistency of the SCF.
In Bochum Freiburg showed some characteristics of a real top team. The SCF was efficient in front of the goal in the decisive phases, defended against the strong Bochum team with full commitment and consistently exploited the opponent’s mistakes. Anyone who had expected a slump in the Streich team after a mixed start to 2023 will now be wrong at the latest. Freiburg also delivered again after three defeats in the Bundesliga with a total of 2:14 goals.
“I have to take my hat off to how they performed today,” said Streich, referring to the lack of self-confidence after the setbacks in Leipzig (1: 3), Wolfsburg (0: 6) and Dortmund (1: 5). A very strong team at home was also waiting for his team in Bochum. VfL had previously won all five Bundesliga games in front of their home crowd under coach Thomas Letsch.
Streich: “If it’s possible, don’t go to Nantes again”
“You have to pass here first. We did it – with flying colours,” said Günter and team-mate Maximilian Eggestein said: “It was important that we won an away game again.” Michael Gregoritsch (39th minute) and Lucas Höler (51st) scored the goals for the guests.
Before Freiburg welcome Bayer Leverkusen next Sunday and want to take the next step towards flowers, they are looking forward to the draw for the Europa League round of 16 on Friday. “We don’t need to hide from anyone,” said Günter. His coach only had one wish: “I’d like to go somewhere I’ve never been before,” said Streich, adding with a view to a group opponent this season: “If it’s possible, don’t go to Nantes again, even if Nantes is nice.” FC Nantes plays against Juventus Turin for a place in the round of the top 16 teams.
