Derby defeat
Against Mainz and Dortmund, VfB made clear steps towards survival in the top flight but trainer Bruno Labbadia's men suffered a set-back on Sunday. Despite creating a number of chances against SC Freiburg on Sunday, VfB failed to find the target. SC, on the other hand, took a first half lead through Johannes Flum, which the ‘Badener' held onto to the end.
Labbadia made three changes to the side which began in Dortmund, with Ciprian Marica, Daniel Didavi and Georg Niedermeier coming in to replace Sven Schipplock, Arthur Boka and Matthieu Delpierre respectively.
Right from the start, in front of 40,000 ‘Niemals 2. Liga' scarves, there were plenty of openings created. In the very first minute Papiss Cisse tested Sven Ulreich and soon after Anton Putsilla fired over the VfB bar. At the other end, Marica, Christian Träsch and Pavel Pogrebnyak all had opportunities to open the scoring but, unfortunately for VfB, none were taken. With just over twenty minutes played, Marica rifled a shot goal-wards, which Oliver Baumann could only parry away, but the keeper was quickly on his feet again to save the rebound shot from Didavi.
Diashow
Then, in the 24th minute Jan Rosenthal and Maximilian Nicu combined to set through Johannes Klum, who slotted home to make it 1-0 for the visitors - a lead which they took into the break.
Width of the post denies Harnik
In the second half, the fans were left waiting for some time before they saw a true attempt on goal. SC were happy to defend their lead, whilst VfB failed to produce going forward. In the 66th minute, Pavel Pogrebnyak fired a free-kick from 17 meters out into the wall and nine minutes later, substitute Sven Schipplock brought a good save from Baumann. With eight minutes to go, the home side had a good shout for a penalty, when SC captain Heiko Butscher blocked a Timo Gebhart shot with his elbow, but referee Dr. Jochen Drees was uninterested. With the game almost over, the VfB fans were prepared to celebrate as Baumann spilled the ball at the feet of Martin Harnik.
Stimmen zum Spiel
VfB head coach Bruno Labbadia: "We were sloppy in the first half and allowed Freiburg to get into the game. It's not easy when you have a deficit to chase."
zu den Stimmen
The Austrian rounded the stranded keeper but stunningly hit the post with the goal yawning at his mercy.
In the end, SC held onto their narrow 1-0 lead and took all three points in spite of not having had a single honest effort on Ulreich's goal in the second half.