Grifo nets hat-trick as SCF turn it around in Serbia

It’s quite rare for two halves of football to be in such stark contrast of each other as they were in SC Freiburg’s third Europa League group-stage match on Thursday evening. Come half time, SCF were trailing in the game and forced into two substitutions due to injury, but a fine comeback in northern Serbia was to follow after the break.

“In the first half, our positional play wasn’t good enough at times and we conceded because we were totally asleep. It allowed our opposition to gain confidence in the game,” head coach Christian Streich was critical of the first 45 minutes in his post-match interview but went on to compliment his team’s second-half showing. “Our positioning was much better after half time and then we got our goals. In the end, it was a deserved win against very hard-working opposition.”

SC Freiburg went into the away game in northern Serbia with the same starting XI that won 2-1 against VfL Bochum at the weekend. The home side, who drew against Vozdovac in their last match, made two changes, with Vukasin Krstic and, somewhat surprisingly, Milos Pantovic named on the bench in place of Josip Calusic and Nemanja Stojic.

The TSC Backa Topola matchday programme had a 14-page section devoted to SC Freiburg. In either Serbian, Hungarian, or English, readers were able to find out about the history of the club, its most important figures and the current squad. The eleven out on the pitch were not looking to be as friendly to their guests, however.

Match balls go flat and the home side go in front

As the stands in the home end slowly started to fill at TSC’s small but modern stadium, around 600 travelling SCF fans were to be found in their places well before kick off.

Following kick off, there was a bit of a wait for things to properly get going, and for a strange reason. Several of the match balls had clearly not been pumped up enough, and after the Freiburg players alerted the officials, they were promptly replaced.

Once regulatory football was able to be played, SC took control of the game and got their first chance of the game through Maximilian Eggestein, whose header went narrowly over the bar (11’). Then suddenly, on the 13-minute mark, it was 1-0 to the hosts. A long ball forward and precise link-up play fashioned a chance for Nemanja Petrovic in the middle of the box, who was stood alone and fired it into the goal from 12 yards.

The same pattern emerged for the home side’s lightning-fast second opportunity, which was shut down by a strong tackle from Maximilian Philipp who rushed back to intervene. On the other side of the pitch, Roland Sallai had a chance from close range to get Freiburg level, but also headed over the bar (20’). To make matters worse, the Hungarian sustained a thigh injury from this attempt and had to come off early, with Lucas Höler coming on in his place.

All in all, it was an unlucky start for SCF, who had made things difficult for themselves against the deep-lying and resolute Backa Topola defence. They struggled to find any real attacking flow, but at least they weren’t conceding opportunities on the counter at the other end.

1-0 down as half time approached

Lucas Höler thought he had drawn his side level in the 37th minute in a similar fashion to the game’s opening goal, in that it came against the run of play, but due to a tight offside in the build-up and a subsequent VAR check, the goal was disallowed. Matthias Ginter and Manuel Gulde also came close with chances that came from a free kick from the centre of the pitch, but neither resulted in the equaliser (44’).

Maximilian Philipp also departed the pitch during this time – it was the visitors’ second forced sub in the first 45 minutes. After landing awkwardly on his shoulder after an aerial duel, Michael Greogritsch replaced Philipp.

SC turn the game around

No further changes were made at half time, but the side came out with much more drive. They won a penalty for handball following a corner early in the second half, and captain Vincenzo Grifo stepped up to calmly slot home and level the scores. He duly celebrated this with the travelling contingent (49’).

SCF almost went in front just three minutes later. Noah Weißhaupt pressed well on the edge of the box, the ball ricocheted to the feet of Ritsu Doan, who, from just five yards out, was unable to get a solid connection on the ball. It fell to Grifo on the rebound, but his curling effort from a tight angle missed the postage stamp by a whisker.

The hosts reacted immediately after conceding the equaliser and pushed their attack higher up the pitch, but found themselves dealing with one wave of Freiburg attacks after the other. Like in the 54th minute, when keeper Veljko Ilic’s net rippled for the third time in the evening. Just like it was for Lucas Höler, celebrations quickly fizzled out, because Noah Weißhaupt, the player whose perfectly-placed cross found goalscorer Michael Gregoritsch, was in an offisde position when Grifo played the ball to the attacker.

Grifo grabs his hat-trick

Instead, it was to be Grifo who would complete the turnaround and then some. The winger chose not to cross it in from a free kick on the right flank, but instead go for goal himself – this caught out keeper Ilic, who couldn’t keep the ball out the net as SC went 2-1 up (59’).

And SCF weren’t finished there. Instead of sitting back, they kept their foot on the gas and looked to build their lead. Ritsu Doan got on the end of a chipped pass just before it went out and drove towards the centre, as a Backa Topola defender rushed out making space for the captain to score his hat-trick. Grifo received the ball ten yards from goal and calmly drilled it into the bottom-left corner (73’).

Grifo received deserved applause from the away fans and hugs from the coaching staff upon his substitution ten minutes before full time. The hat-trick hero wrapped himself in a dry, warm towel as he saw his side see out their second victory in three group matches and put an unlucky first half in their rear-view mirror.

The away win takes SCF top of group A, for the time being. Before their next Europa League clash, they have matches to play in the league and the DFB-Pokal, the first of these coming against Bayer 04 Leverkusen on Sunday (17:30 GMT).

Photos: Predrag Milosavljevic