Wel Champion Ángel Di María robbed SC Freiburg of a possible surprise in the first leg of the Europa League round of 16. The Argentinian was the most conspicuous man on the pitch in the 0-1 (0-0) defeat of the Bundesliga soccer club at Juventus Turin on Thursday and scored the decisive goal in the 53rd minute.
The Badeners showed a courageous, offensive, but harmless performance over long stretches. Your supposed compensation by Lucas Höler (62nd) was denied because of a previous handball. Nevertheless, the starting position of the SC before the second leg against Italy’s record champions in the coming week is still passable.
“We didn’t play purposefully forward, the last punch was missing,” said Freiburg’s Matthias Ginter on RTL, “but basically we showed a good away game. We’ve seen that we’re getting rooms. In the second leg we have to be more compelling now, but I’m relatively optimistic.”
Christian Streich remained true to himself in the biggest international game in the Freiburg club’s history. Wearing a jacket and sweater instead of a fine designer suit, the long-time successful coach stood on the sidelines, and his team acted just as calmly in the lively atmosphere in the Juventus Stadium, which was packed with 37,474 spectators. Freiburg showed no fear of the big names around the whirling attacking star Di María, even if it got uncomfortable at times – like right at the beginning.
Just no away game at home
The SC was supported by around 2100 supporters. It would have been far more if the Italians hadn’t canceled the tickets that Freiburg fans had organized through a short-term Juve membership. In the end, smaller SC fan groups also found themselves outside of the guest area.
The 36-time Italian champions just didn’t want an away game at home, after all, the Europa League is now the most important competition this season. Because after the 15-point deduction in Serie A due to financial tricks, the premier class in the coming season as currently seventh in the table can probably only be reached by winning the Europa League.
In the course of the first half, Turin also put a lot of pressure on. Freiburg goalkeeper Mark Flekken (13′) was lucky when Adrien Rabiot had a chance, but the free-kicks by Juan Cuadrado (19′) and Dusan Vlahovic (25′) weren’t a big test. Things got dicey when Flekken ran under a sharp corner from Di María, but the Brazilian Bremer missed the lead with a header (31′).
Only towards the end of the first half did the Bundesliga fifth manage to relieve the pressure and sometimes have longer periods of possession before Cuadrado tested Flekken again (45+1).
But the Italians didn’t give up and gave the Freiburg back team a lot of work. Often the actions of Juventus Turin were too imprecise until the former Frankfurt Filip Kostic appeared. The Serb prepared the opening goal with a fine cross to Di María. Streich reacted, brought in two new players and suddenly Freiburg were celebrating. Höler scored the supposed equalizer with the first shot on goal. But the goal was withdrawn after studying the video images because Ginter had previously touched the ball with his hands.