It was once again time for SC to take on Racing Straßburg from France in pre-season, a friendly that is slowly starting to become a yearly tradition for the two clubs. This season, the two teams played back-to-back games against one another at the Colmar Stadion in France. Around 5,000 fans turned up at the ground which has a maximum capacity of 7,000.
In the penultimate friendly of pre-season, goalkeeper Noah Atubolu was unavailable after undergoing an operation on his appendix on Friday. Nicolas Höfler, Maximilian Philipp, Lukas Kübler, Eren Dinkci (all knocks) and Kenneth Schmidt (ill) all also missed out.
SC go behind despite a decent start to game one
SC began brightly in the first of the two games. After an error by a Strasbourg defender in the box, Vincenzo Grifo had a great chance to open the scoring from around 10 yards out, but his effort narrowly went past the far post (2’).
RC Strasbourg, who finished 13th in Ligue 1 last season, took a quarter of an hour to grow into the game, but made it 1-0 when they finally did. Guela Doue’s low shot after a cross was cleared broke the deadlock (18’). Just five minutes later, Emmanuel Emegha left Florian Müller, Atubolu’s replacement, with no chance (23’).
It was a frustrating deficit for SC, who had been the better of the two sides in the early stages but failed to take their chances. This changed in the 38th minute though. Patrick Osterhage’s pressing won the ball on the edge of the box and he then won a penalty. Grifo found the back of the net from the spot with a cheeky Panenka.
Freiburg came close to levelling proceedings before the break as well. Thomas Delaine’s attempted clearance inadvertently hit his own post (41’) and then Maximlian Eggestein’s shot from distance was saved by keeper Robin Risser (42’), meaning SC went in behind 2-1 down.
Adamu grabs the equaliser
The second half of game one was less eventful than the first. SC dealt better with Racing’s quick attacks, and the opponents made fewer mistakes at the back that Freiburg could take advantage of. That was, however, until the 67th minute. Junior Adamu pinched the ball from goalkeeper Risser and then equalised from an almost impossible angle.
SC pushed for a winner late on in Colmar. Their best opportunity came via Vincenzo Grifo after Patrick Osterhage’s attempt was blocked. Risser just about parried the Italy international’s powerful shot and it therefore ended 2-2.
Muslija and Höler score in the first half of game two
The second game saw Michael Gregoritsch, Philipp Lienhart, Berkay Yilmaz and Roland Sallai all feature having only just joined pre-season after receiving extended holidays following international duty. Sallai had the first shot of the game, testing out goalkeeper Ryan Tutu with a decent volley (4’).
Just like in the first game, Freiburg’s first goal came from the penalty spot. Yilmaz was played in behind and then fouled in the box. This time, Florent Muslija confidently buried the penalty (12’).
SC’s lead only lasted three minutes as Pape Diong rose highest to head in from a free-kick (15’). The second game was rapidly developing into a chaotic one – Noah Weißhaupt went up the other end and hit the post, then Muslija shot just over shortly afterwards.
SC were on top and deservedly took the lead from a fine attack. Noah Weißhaupt on the left wing found Lucas Höler on the edge. He played it to Michael Gregoritsch and the Austrian beautifully chipped the ball into Höler’s path. He remained cool in front of Tutu and slotted the ball past the keeper for 2-1 (32’), as it remained until half time.
Lienhart’s header makes it 3-1
SC made it 3-1 around 10 minutes into the fourth and final half of the day. From a short corner, Muslija crossed for Lienhart and he headed home from close range (56’).
Freiburg took fewer risks after the third goal and gradually brought on some U23 players. SC did well to keep their opponents away from their goal and looked to be dangerous on the counter too. Racing got one back through Elies Araar Fernandez with nine minutes left to play.
The defender’s goal wasn’t enough to earn Racing a draw from the second game and SC held on for a deserved 3-2 victory.
Coach Julian Schuster: “It’s nice that we ended the day with a win, but it was more important to me that that we played well. We could have scored one or two more goals, though a lot of things were good. I’m really happy about both games.”
SC’s teams:
Match 1: Müller – Ogbus, Rosenfelder, Gulde, Günter – Doan, Osterhage, Eggestein, Grifo – Röhl, Adamu
Match 2: Huth – Yilmaz (76’ Steinmann), Schopper, Lienhart (63’ Afuetozia), Makengo – Sallai (45’ Sturm), Manzambi, Muslija, Weißhaupt – Höler, Gregoritsch (63’ Marino)