A heavy defeat in Freiburg | OneFootball

The Green-Whites headed back to Bremen empty-handed on Friday evening (Photo: WERDER.DE).

Report from the loss on matchday 23

On Friday evening, Ole Werner’s SV Werder Bremen suffered a disappointing 5-0 defeat to a strong SC Freiburg side. Although the Green-Whites made a promising start to the matchday 23 clash, the hosts came out the traps firing and opened the scoring through an overhead kick from Kiliann Sildillia (15’). Grifo was next on the scoresheet after striking home a free-kick (33’), securing his brace after the break with Freiburg’s third of the game (57’). Doan proceeded to follow suit (76’, 90’+2), sealing Werder’s fate and sending them home empty-handed after a challenging evening at the Europa-Park Stadion.

Line-up and formation: The away clash against Freiburg saw André Silva make his first appearance in Werder’s XI, with Amos Pieper, Justin Njinmah and Derrick Köhn returning to the line-up. Marco Grüll, Issa Kaboré and Marvin Ducksch all started the game on the bench, while Milos Veljkovic remained absent from the squad due to back problems.

Werder’s starting XI: Zetterer - Jung, Stark, Pieper, Weiser, Silva, Bittencourt, Njinmah, Lynen, Köhn and Schmid.

Bench: Backhaus - Stage, Ducksch, Burke, Grüll, Malatini, Agu, Alvero and Kaboré.

Freiburg start on the front foot

André Silva was denied from the spot by the Freiburg keeper (Photo: WERDER.DE).

First-half highlights:

8th minute: Werder create their first chance of the game through André Silva, who fires the ball towards the bottom right corner, yet Freiburg’s Atubolu clears the danger.

15th minute: The hosts open the scoring. Grifo’s corner finds Kiliann Sildillia in the middle, who pulls off an overhead kick and leaves Zetterer with no chance.

18th minute: The Green-Whites almost level the scoring as the ball reaches an unmarked Silva in the penalty area, but the striker is unable to keep his header on target.

33rd minute: Grifo doubles the lead for Freiburg. The midfielder curls a free-kick around the Werder wall, which sails past Zetterer into the bottom right corner.

39th minute: Werder are awarded a penalty following a handball in the box, and André Silva steps up to take it. He strikes the ball towards the bottom right corner, but Atubolu guesses correctly and knocks it behind for a corner.

The final nail in the coffin

Freiburg showed no mercy against the Green-Whites (Photo: WERDER.DE).

Second-half highlights:

57th minute: Grifo makes it three for the hosts. Doan’s cross falls kindly for the attacker, who hammers a volley into the back of the net from close range.

66th minute: Jens Stage and André Silva combine in the penalty area, with Werder’s number 6 pulling the trigger from a tight angle, yet he can’t find the target.

76th minute: Doan gets in on the action and makes it four for SCF. Receiving the ball just outside the penalty box, the winger drills a left-footed shot into the bottom right corner.

90th minute +2: It’s five. Beste delivers a cross into the centre, where Doan is waiting unmarked to finish the job for the hosts.

90th minute +4: Full-time. Werder are defeated by SC Freiburg. The Green-Whites will next be in action on Tuesday evening (25th February, 20:45 CET), where they’ll travel to Arminia Bielefeld in the quarter-final of the DFB-Pokal.

Summary: The Green-Whites were certainly not at the races on matchday 23. While they appeared to step onto the pitch with confidence, Freiburg were at full throttle from the offset and set the pace early on. Despite there being a glimmer of hope at the break, SCF turned things up a notch and struck three more past Zetterer, leaving Werder with nothing to show for their efforts at the end of the 90 minutes.

Match Facts

SC Freiburg: Atubolu - Günter, Lienhart, Ginter (82' Makengo), Sildillia - Grifo (71' Beste), Röhl (71' Dinkci), Osterhage, Eggestein (82' Manzambi), Doan - Höler (77' Adamu)

SV Werder: Zetterer - Pieper (86' Malatini), Stark, Jung - Weiser, Lynen, Köhn (61' Agu) - Bittencourt (61' Stage), Schmid - Njinmah (61' Ducksch), Silva (72' Grüll)

Goals: 1-0 Sildillia (15'), 2-0 Grifo (33'), 3-0 Grifo (57'), 4-0 Doan (76'), 5-0 Doan (90'+2)

Referee: Dr. Max Burda

Spectators: 34,700