Grifo and Jeong on target as Freiburg down Bielefeld

Freiburg 2-0 Arminia Bielefeld
Goals: 1-0 Grifo (pen. 79'), 2-0 Jeong (90'+2)

Freiburg started the brighter of the two sides with Manuel Gulde making his presence felt in both boxes, first stopping Ritsu Doan in his tracks and then forcing Stefan Ortega into a save with a header from Vincenzo's Grifo's free-kick. Nils Petersen was preferred to Ermedin Demirovic up front - the only change coach Streich made from last Saturday's 2-2 draw with Borussia Mönchengladbach - and Freiburg's record scorer thought he had bagged his 92nd goal for the club when he met Christian Günter's cross, but his effort was ruled out for offside. Ortega's opposite number Florian Müller got away with a loose pass midway through the half, Sven Schipplock sending what should have been the opening goal off target. Lucas Höler then fired straight into Ortega's gloves moments later and Harm Osmers' whistle for the break went with the deadlock intact.

Freiburg kept their attacking verve up into the second half, though, and Grifo was inches away from connecting with another Günter cross into the Bielefeld box early on. The hosts must have been wondering what they had to do to open the scoring when Petersen fired wide with the goal at his mercy after Ortega had parried a Grifo shot from range on the hour mark. Bielefeld coach Uwe Neuhaus soon brought on forward Sergio Cordova for midfielder Cebio Soukou in an attempt to get his side going, but Freiburg stayed on the front foot and took a deserved lead when Grifo stroked home a penalty that second-half substitute Roland Sallai had earned. Jeong then capped off the 2-0 win minutes after replacing Grifo.

• Grifo's penalty was his fifth goal of the season. The Italy international has had a hand in a team-high seven goals all told.
• Petersen has a club-record 91 goals for Freiburg. Current Germany coach Joachim Löw has the next most with 83.
• The Black Forest club won for the first time in 10 league outings - since beating VfB Stuttgart 3-2 on the opening day - bringing to an end their longest drought in six years.
• Freiburg keeper Florian Müller kept his first clean sheet since being signed on loan from Mainz in the off season.
• Doan is the only Bielefeld player to have multiple goals and assists this season (two each). He got one of both in last week's 2-1 win over Mainz.
• Bielefeld’s record of four victories from seven Bundesliga meetings with Freiburg remains their best return against any club currently in the top flight.

Freiburg: F. Müller - Lienhart, Schlotterbeck, Gulde - Schmid, Santamaria, Höfler, Günter (c) - Höler (Sallai 68'), Petersen, Grifo (Jeong 86')
Unused subs: Uphoff, Abrashi, Demirovic, Til, Heintz, Tempelmann, Boukhalfa
Out: Flekken (elbow), Haberer (ankle), Itter (muscular), Keitel (knee), Kübler (groin), Kwon (not included)
Coach: Christian Streich 

Bielefeld: Ortega - Brunner, Nilsson, Van der Hoorn, Lucoqui (S. Müller 89') - Doan, Prietl, Hartel (Seufert 82'), Soukou (Cordova 61') - Schipplock (Gebauer 82'), Klos (c)
Unused subs: Linner, de Medina, Kunze, Consbruch
Out: Laursen (knee), Maier (knock), Pieper (thigh), Voglsammer (calf)
Coach: Uwe Neuhaus