With the victory in the last home game of the year against VfL Wolfsburg, SC Freiburg is among the top five in the league. The mood is good again for coach Julian Schuster, only goalkeeper Noah Atubolu is upset.
SC Freiburg’s fans ordered their players in front of the fan curve after the final whistle, in order to be able to celebrate the successful home conclusion worthily. They had to tremble just now, as the Sport-Club had almost given up the game after a seemingly comfortable 3-0 lead in the 61st minute. But in the end, the Breisgauers managed to hold on to their narrow 3-2 lead against VfL Wolfsburg, so it was time to celebrate.
SC coach Julian Schuster was also celebrating. “Compliments to the boys, they did a great job,” said the 39-year-old, who had recently criticized his players’ “poor decision-making” in offense, on the DAZN channel. Now against Wolfsburg, he saw a “big step forward”.
Despite his team’s near collapse in the last half hour, the coach only wanted to emphasize the positive: “We won today against a very, very strong Wolfsburg team. That’s what counts. Of course we should have scored the fourth goal earlier, and of course we made it unnecessarily exciting,” said Schuster. “But today there is no complaining.”
Kübler with a “nose” – Atubolu is “incredibly” upset
This last home game of the 2024 football season produced two heroes for Freiburg. On the one hand, there was Lukas Kübler, who once again proved his goal-scoring instinct with two goals from corners – the 32-year-old already scored twice on the first matchday in the 3-1 win against Stuttgart – and put the sports club on the road to victory. “Somehow I was in the right place twice for the corner. Today I had a nose,” said the right-back, who already has four goals this season.
And there was Noah Atubolu, who has been in outstanding form in recent weeks anyway, who secured Freiburg’s victory with strong saves. ‘These were very important three points today,’ the keeper was happy about the win on the DAZN microphone. Just to add: “The goals against really get on my nerves because I really wanted to keep a clean sheet.” In the end, it was unnecessarily exciting again, “we all didn’t need that.”
But the mood in Freiburg is rosy again after a brief slump with only six points from six league games and the bitter 3-1 cup exit in Bielefeld. The Breisgauer climbed to fifth place in the table. “I’m very proud of the team. It just fits,” said Kübler. But he also warned that lessons had to be learned from the poor second half of the season last year.
Atubolu was also satisfied with the “good games” of the last few weeks and said that he wanted to “give it his all” again in the last game of the year against Leverkusen next Saturday. If they win at the champions, the sports club might even be in a Champions League place over the winter. “That sounds like a great Christmas,” Atubolu smiled at the thought.
