Enlarge image
Michael Gregoritsch scored twice
Photo: Angelos Tzortzinis / dpa
SC Freiburg is clearly ahead in Group G of the Europa League.
Christian Streich's team clearly won their guest appearance at the Greek champions Olympiakos Piraeus 3-0 (2-0).
After the opening goal by Nicolas Höfler (5th minute), Michael Gregoritsch scored twice (25th, 53rd).
Right from the start, the second in the Bundesliga seemed to know much better than the opposition what to do on the pitch.
Freiburg's good initial phase was helped by the early lead, which once again showed SCF's standard strength: A quick free-kick cross from Vincenzo Grifo found Höfler, who landed the ball with a header (5').
After the 1-0 Freiburg kept the game under control and had several opportunities to extend the lead.
A first attempt by Gregoritsch narrowly missed the goal (13'), the busy creative player Daniel-Kofi Kyereh failed with a powerful shot by goalkeeper Tomáš Vaclík (23').
Then one, Kyereh, put the other, Gregoritsch, in the limelight with a slip-in pass - it was immediately 2-0, the Austrian, who came from FC Augsburg in the summer, didn't let the chance be missed from close range.
Without Rodríguez, without ideas
Shortly before the game, Olympiakos had reported another success on the transfer market: James Rodríguez, formerly under contract with FC Bayern and Real Madrid, joined the Greek champions on loan from Al-Rayyan shortly before the transfer deadline in Greece.
A squad nomination came far too early for the former world-class player.
Without the Colombian, Piraeus were almost completely out of ideas, Freiburg goalkeeper Mark Flekken had a quiet evening, only a few minutes of game interruption after half an hour caused excitement because Olympiakos' fans threw pyrotechnics on the field.
Gregoritsch's second goal (53rd) made the preliminary decision that Freiburg could have won even more.
SC now have a small cushion in Group G: Freiburg are top of the table with six points, while Azerbaijan's Qarabag Agdam are tied with France in second place after beating FC Nantest in the parallel game.
The next Freiburg group game will take place at home against Nantes on October 6th.
cev