Freiburg says goodbye to the short winter break with a good feeling. Christian Streich handed out praise and revealed how he will celebrate his tenth anniversary. Vincenzo Grifo, meanwhile, explained why his cheeky penalty was not arrogant.
29 points and third place, that is “worthy of all honour”, said SC coach Christian Streich with regard to the outstanding first half of the season of the Freiburg team, which had a successful end to the year with the 2-1 victory over Leverkusen. The success rested on the very strong defence. Together with FC Bayern, the Sport-Club has the best defence in the league.
“We have one of the fewest goals conceded in the league, that’s no coincidence,” said Christian Günter, referring to the 16 goals conceded, and was also satisfied with what had been achieved, especially as SC “didn’t have a bad game” in his eyes, but at the same time also issued a warning: “We can look back on a very good first half of the season, but we also want to stay hungry in the second half. “
Not left, not right, but in the middle.
Vincenzo Grifo also showed his hunger against Bayer, having scored the interim 1:0 with a cheekily converted Panenka penalty. After the final whistle, the Italian stressed that his penalty had “nothing to do with arrogance”, rather he had decided to take it out of fear of failure: “I missed a fortnight ago and was totally annoyed. I’m only human and I worry about things. I thought to myself: ‘Not left, not right, but in the middle’ – and that a lob would be the best option. I’m god glad it went in. “
Streich hands out praise
Streich, meanwhile, was “very pleased” with the performance of the entire team. “We played really good football. We had composure, courage, a good division of space and ran smartly against the ball,” the 56-year-old had nothing but praise for his players. Asked about his upcoming tenth anniversary on the Freiburg bench, he was modest. “Maybe I’ll light a candle,” said Streich and added: “Nothing more. “