Freiburg earned a hugely important three points on Saturday afternoon, with a dominant second-half performance over Augsburg. Jonathan Schmid and Nils Petersen struck in the second forty-five which brought them out of the bottom three.
Augsburg's charge for Europe had taken a few blows in the weeks before their trip to Freiburg and a 0-2 defeat to Mainz was a far cry from the usual quality Markus Weinzierl's side possess. Halil Altintop (muscle problems) was replaced by Nikola Djurdjic in his only change.
Marc Torrejon was suspended, so Pavel Krmas earned a start. Vladimir Darida dropped to the bench, meaning Nicolas Hölfer started in the heart of midfield.
The game began very slowly in Freiburg and neither side looked like forcing any sort of clear cut chance within the opening ten minutes. Augsburg were enjoying spells of possession, but couldn't find Ji Dong-Won or Djurdjic in the right areas to make it count.
Tobias Werner and Raul Bobadilla were sending plenty of crosses their way, but neither could get on the end of them. Jonathan Schmid then had an effort well saved at the other end, just before Oliver Sorg had a twenty-five yard drive brilliantly tipped away by Marwin Hitz.
The hosts were beginning to dominate and a cross and deflection just fell out of the ready-and-waiting Mike Frantz, who would have had an easy tap-in otherwise. Werner was then called upon to clear Stefan Mitrovic's header off the line. However, Augsburg managed to weather the storm and almost went into the half-time break with a lead but Roman Bürki produced an important stop from Bobadilla.
Pierre-Emile Höjbjerg was introduced at the break for the visitors and they tested Bürki once more, this time Dominik Kohr's long-range shot was topped wide by the Swiss stopper. Höjbjerg himself then had a tap corner bound effort hooked away by the impressive Bürki, who is arguably one of the best buys this season.
Freiburg had chances themselves, mainly falling the way of Admir Mehmedi. Unfortunately he couldn't match the level of performance shown by his country and both went begging. Though they would find themselves ahead, deservedly so too.
Sorg picked up a loose ball on the edge of the box and shifted it to his left, finding Schmid. He drove into the box and let fly, the ball cannoning off Hitz's legs and in off the post. Freiburg were playing some absolutely fantastic football and scored a deserved second with the clock ticking down to seal the win.
Nils Petersen was the beneficiary of Vladimir Darida's brilliant dribbling and cut back, as he blasted the ball into the net from twelve yards out. The two substitutes combined to seal an invaluable win, with Petersen and Darida wheeling away to celebrate.
The win lifts Freiburg out of the bottom three and into 15th, a massive result ahead of their game with Köln next weekend. Augsburg will be thankful that Hoffenheim and Frankfurt both failed to win, though they'll know that the upcoming game against Schalke will be huge.