Foals held to a point in Freiburg

Matchday 10 in the Bundesliga saw Borussia Mönchengladbach draw 2-2 away at SC Freiburg. Breel Embolo and Alassane Plea were on the scoresheet for the Foals.

It wasn’t the most turbulent of starts at the Schwarzwald-Stadion in Breisgau, with sloppy touches from both sides resulting in their attacks breaking down. It wasn’t until the 15th minute that the game produced its first chance, and it’s one that should have seen Freiburg take the lead. Lucas Höler hit the post when one-on-one with Yann Sommer though and also failed to direct the rebound on target. Borussia were much more clinical when their first opportunity arose shortly after. Breel Embolo played a neat one-two with Lars Stindl, before the Swiss forward side-footed the ball past Florian Müller to open the scoring (23’). The home side pulled themselves back level before the break from a set piece, however, with Philipp Lienhart heading in following a corner kick (32’).

The second half started badly for Borussia when referee Tobias Stieler pointed to the penalty spot inside just four minutes. Former Foal Vincenzo Grifo converted the spot-kick to complete a Freiburg turnaround (49’), but their lead lasted less than a minute. Alassane Plea found himself with a bit of time and space 25 yards out and he picked out the top corner in devastating fashion to make it 2-2 (50’). Both sides went in search of a winner and both had big chances to grab one. Grifo rattled the woodwork with a shot from a tight angle and Sommer had to make a remarkable triple save to keep Freiburg out with just minutes remaining. It was Gladbach who could have had the final say though. Substitute Patrick Herrmann was put in behind in stoppage time but saw his shot trickle agonisingly wide of the post with Müller beaten.

TEAM NEWS

Marco Rose made three changes to the starting XI compared to Tuesday’s Champions League game against Inter Milan. Denis Zakaria, Breel Embolo and Hannes Wolf all came into the side, replacing Tony Jantschke, Valentino Lazaro and Marcus Thuram.

Jantschke had come off at half time against Inter with a knee problem and was also unavailable for the trip to Freiburg. Nico Elvedi (muscular problem), Jonas Hofmann (torn hamstring) and Ramy Bensebaini (coronavirus) remained sidelined as well.

MATCH FACTS

Freiburg: Müller – Lienhart, Schlotterbeck, Gulde – Schmid, Santamaria, Höfler, Günter – Höler (74’ Sallai), Grifo (83’ Til) – Demirovic (74’ Petersen)

Borussia: Sommer – Lainer (64’ Lazaro), Ginter, Kramer, Wendt – Zakaria (53’ Bénes), Neuhaus – Wolf (64’ Thuram), Stindl, Plea (79’ Herrmann) – Embolo

Goals: 0-1 Embolo (23’), 1-1 Lienhart (32’), 2-1 Grifo (49’, pen.) 2-2 Plea (50’)

Yellow cards: Schlotterbeck / Neuhaus, Plea

Referee: Tobias Stieler (Hamburg)

Attendance: 0