EL embarrassment averted
SC Freiburg celebrates the really big Grifo show
October 26, 2023, 8:43 p.m
Vincenzo Grifo puts the ball into the net three times. So he lets SC Freiburg celebrate against Bačka Topola in the Europa League and prevents a little embarrassment. When we’re behind early on, the defense doesn’t look good at all. But an injured duo is causing concern.
Hat-trick captain Vincenzo Grifo saved SC Freiburg from an impending embarrassment in the Serbian province and shot the Breisgauers towards the knockout round of the Europa League. The Bundesliga soccer team won 3-1 (0-1) at the Serbian runner-up TSC Backa Topola on the third preliminary round match day after a half-time deficit and previously weak performance thanks to the German-Italian team.
Captain Grifo scored with a hand penalty (49th), a free kick (59th) and out of play (73rd) for SC, which has to play leaders Bayer Leverkusen in the league on Sunday. In the Europa League, Freiburg is on target with six points. Nemanja Petrovic was successful for Backa Topola (13th). “I’m super happy that I scored three goals. It was incredibly important to win here,” said Grifo on RTL+: “The first half wasn’t a good one.”
In front of 4,000 spectators, almost nothing happened in the first ten minutes. The Serbs, who failed to qualify for the Champion League in the third round against Sporting Braga from Portugal, left the ball to Freiburg. However, the SC couldn’t do anything with it. The hosts did better. The club from the small town with 16,000 inhabitants near the Hungarian border scored in its first attack. Full-back Petrovic punished the collective failure of the Freiburg defense.
In the 23rd minute, the injured Roland Sallai had to come off and Lucas Höler came on to replace him. This didn’t make the game of last season’s Europa League round of 16 any better. The unimaginative Freiburg offensive was unable to prevail against the robust Serbs. Even after half an hour, the 500 SC fans who had traveled with us waited in vain for their first chance to score. Freiburg couldn’t manage much more than an offside goal from Höler (37′) in the first half. To make matters worse, Maximilian Philipp also had to leave the field with a shoulder injury in stoppage time in the first half, and Michael Gregoritsch came on to replace him.
“We didn’t defend the 0-1 well,” said SC sports director Klemens Hartenbach at the break on RTL+: “The injuries are the most annoying. Both will definitely be out for the time being.” At the start of the second half, Freiburg seemed more alert and Grifo equalized from the spot early on. Three minutes later, the German-Italian had the SC lead. Shortly afterwards, Grifo scored with a free kick – before completing his hat trick and receiving well-deserved applause when he was substituted (80th) a little later.