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The Stadion an der Bremer Brücke was already familiar to some of the players. SC visited Osnabrück for a Pokal clash just three years ago, but needed penalties to scarcely make it through to the second round. This time around, the job was done within 90 minutes.
A new arrival featured from the start for Freiburg. Patrick Osterhage began alongside Maximilian Eggestein in the middle of the park. In the back four, Bruno Ogbus was handed a start. Both players were experiencing the backing of the travelling SC fans for the first time. A sold-out away end housed the 1,500 fans who had made the trip with the team. On top of the players who had missed the Fiorentina game, Merlin Röhl (muscular problems) and Kiliann Sildillia (minor foot injury) were also absent.
SC with a quick-fire double
The hosts started the better of the two sides, and were the overall better team in the first half. After only a minute, VfL had a good opportunity, as Niklas Niehoff broke down the right and hit the side-netting with his strike. Five minutes later and the ball found the back of the SC net, however the goal was chalked off after referee Erik Engelhardt pulled play back for a foul on Rosenfelder. Ba-Muaka Simakala could have handed his side the lead on 15 minutes, but only hit the post from eight yards out. Julian Schuster had commented that, “This is not the stadium you want to be playing in for the first round,” and his reasons behind that were all too clear after the opening minutes of the game.
Within the space of only four minutes, however, the difference in quality between first and third division teams came to fruition. After half an hour, Ritsu Doan lead an attack down the right flank, laying off to Ogbus, whose ball into the box was timed perfectly. Lucas Höler said thank you very much and applied the finish to open the scoring. Four minutes later and it was 2-0. Again, the goal arrived after nice build-up play, starting from the back, passing through the midfield and into Vincenzo Grifo, who curled the ball into the far bottom corner.
The third-tier side collected themselves well and nearly responded with a goal back, but Robert Tesche’s header could only find the post (39’). Osnabrück had more good chances and they played whole-heartedly, but there was one deciding factor that told in the end: Freiburg were just more effective.
Doan misses the clincher but Adamu is at the double
With a two-goal lead behind them, SC let their opponents shape the second half to the greater extent, but did not give away as many scoring chances, instead finding their way into the opponent’s half more often themselves. Höler got a shot away in the 53rd minute, but could not generate enough power to threaten from an acute angle. Then, a promising one-two between Doan and Osterhage in the penalty area was only followed by Doan’s shot being deflected (59’).
Five minutes later, the Japanese international missed the chance to clinch it. After getting on the end of a knock-down from Junior Adamu, Doan was running in on the Osnabrück goal all alone, but ended up shooting straight at VfL keeper David Richter. Even though the hosts carried on fighting and Niehoff had another great chance to score, it was SC who managed to take the game away from their opponents, when Adamu made sure of passage into the second round on 73 minutes. After Höler’s good ball through, Richter could only parry straight onto the striker, and the ball landed in the net for 3-0.
Substitute Michael Gregoritsch should have made it four. However, his volley following Lukas Kübler’s cross flew over the crossbar (89’). Where one Austrian failed, the other managed to score for the second time. Nicolas Höfler knocked down a corner with his head and Adamu was on hand to make it 4-0 in stoppage time.
After a difficult start to the game, Schuster’s side celebrated their first win of the season in their first competitive game. Two quick-fire goals set them on course to prevail over their third-division opponents.
