SC Freiburg claimed all three points against Fortuna Düsseldorf on Saturday afternoon. Goals from Vincenzio Grifo and Nicolas Höfler gave the away side a narrow 1-2 away win to leave them second in the standings.

The home side made two changes from last week's outing in Heidenheim. Mike van Duinen earned his debut, coming in for Didier Ya Konan who was dropped to the bench, and Axel Bellinghausen came in for the absent Michael Liendl.

The away side had to make four enforced changes. After defenders Mensur Mujdza and Marc Torrejon saw red last weekend, they were replaced by Jonas Föhrenbach and Lucas Hufnagel, with Mike Frantz playing in the unfamiliar full-back role. Nils Petersen was also unable to shrug off a niggle he'd sustained during the week and was replaced by Karim Guédé up front. Likewise with Vegar Eggen Hedenstad, he missed the game through injury and was replaced by Maximilian Philipp who returned from illness.

Kick-off

There was an impeccably observed minutes silence pre-match for former DFB President, Mayer-Vorfelder, who sadly passed away earlier this month. He was president between the years of 2000 and 2006.

Fortuna Düsseldorf got the game underway and the opening 10 minutes were tightly contended if not rather scrappy with no shots at either goal.
It wasn't until the 17th minute that we saw the first shot on goal. Amir Abrashi of Sport-Club testing the reflexes of Fortuna 'keeper Michael Rensing from 18 yards who saved low to his left.

After that the game came alive a little more. Sercan Serarer probing difficult for the Freiburg defence to deal with. First he forced a corner which came to nothing before moments later outpacing Freiburg centre-half Föhrenbach and bringing a brilliant one-on-one stop from Freiburg stopper Alexander Schwolow.

On the half hour mark, Freiburg created their best opening of the game. A well worked move down the right hand side resulted in Philipp creating himself a yard of space on the edge of the 18-yard-box, but he was wayward in his shooting and blazed the shot well over the crossbar.

Freiburg draw first blood and the game sparks into life

On 33 minutes Freiburg scored the first goal of the game, putting together a lovely counter-attacking move, which resulted in Düsseldorf being outnumbered at at back, three to two, Philipp played in Italian winger Vincenzo Grifo who, coolness personified, slotted low beyond the on-rushing Rensing.

However, Freiburg were ahead for no longer than four minutes. They continued to press, looking for a second, after going ahead and forced a corner. Goalscorer Grifo opted to take it short but his pass was under-hit and intercepted by Sararer who hurdled the challenge of Abrashi, played in Norwegian-Ivorian Mathis Bolly, who showed lightning pace in running almost the length of the pitch before burying his effort past Schwolow to bring the home side almost immediately back on level terms.

Incredibly, two minutes after drawing themselves level, the home side once again found themselves behind. Midfielder, Höfler expertly curled the ball into the corner , from the corner of the 18-yard-box beyond the reach of Rensing after being played in by Philipp. Philipp helping himself to his second assist of the game. 1-2 to Freiburg, who carried their lead into the interval. Fortuna also lost Julian Koch to injury just prior to half-time, and he was replaced by Marcel Sobottka.

Düsseldorf make bright start

Fortuna made one change at half-time, replacing Polish midfielder, Adam Bodzek with striker Didier Ya Konan. Fortuna stared the brighter after the break and created two decent chances. The first fell to Sararer, who drilled an effort hard at Schwolow, who gathered comfortably. Bellinghausen then drilled a ball across the face of goal, but it evaded everybody and ran through for a Freiburg throw-in.

Fortuna pass up golden opportunity

In the 58th minute, Osmers awarded Fortuna a penalty. Sararer skipped into the box and cut back inside Föhrenbach, who tripped the attacker and the referee pointed to the spot. Sararer stepped up to take the spot-kick himself, but his effort was tame and Schwolow saved comfortably low to his left, to keep the scoreline at 1-2 in the away sides favour.

Fortuna continued to press for an equaliser and defender Karim Haggui was next to threaten the Freiburg goal. He headed just over the crossbar from a corner.

Then twice in the space of two minutes they rattled the crossbar. First from a corner, Strohdiek powered his header onto the underside of the bar, and despite appeals that it had crossed the line, the referee and his assistant waved the game on. In Fortuna's next foray forward, Freiburg were left light at the back and Sararer played in Ya Konan who, on the half-volley, blasted his shot onto the bar, in a position he should really have been scoring from.

Close but no cigar

Despite having the vast majority of the ball and all the chances in the second period, Düsseldorf couldn't find a way to pull themselves level and remain in the bottom three having only taken one point from a possible twelve. Freiburg climb four places to second, even if only until tomorrow, and get back to winning ways after last weekend's result. Die Breisgauer have claimed nine points from their opening four games.