Grifo seals win as Freiburg cruise past Augsburg

Freiburg 3-0 Augsburg
Goals: 1-0 Kübler (6'), 2-0 Höler (25'), 3-0 Grifo (33')

The Black Forest side will move into a new state-of-the-art Europa-Park Stadion ahead of their next home fixture (against RB Leipzig on Matchday 8), and began this match determined to close this chapter in the club’s on a high note. Lukas Kübler set the tone as early as the sixth minute, poking in the rebound from close range after Christian Günter’s shot was parried into his path by Rafal Gikiewicz. More was soon to come. Maximilian Eggestein threaded a clever pass through to Lucas Höler, who dinked the ball over the Augsburg goalkeeper to double his side’s advantage. Grifo effectively ended the game as a contest shortly afterwards, smashing a penalty high into the net after Raphael Framberger had been penalised for handball.

Augsburg coach Markus Weinzierl brought on Carlos Gruezo and Andi Zeqiri at half-time in a bid to stem the one-sided nature of the game. It worked initially, as Daniel Caligiuri and Ruben Vargas both had long-range efforts at goal early on, but the home side soon reasserted themselves. Günter was a constant menace with deep runs down the left flank, his crosses causing panic in the Augsburg box while he also saw a swerving drive bend just wide of the post. Christian Streich introduced supersub Nils Petersen from the bench in the closing stages – the striker has a league record 29 goals as a substitute – as Freiburg looked to mark the occasion by scoring the 1000th Bundesliga goal at the stadium, and he went close to getting it when teed up by Nico Schlotterbeck, but the ball bounced off his leg and went wide. It mattered little in the end, however, as unbeaten Freiburg eased to their third win of the season that lifts them to fifth in the standings.

• Freiburg are unbeaten six matches into a Bundesliga season for the first time.
• Grifo's penalty was the 999th - and final - Bundesliga goal to be scored at Freiburg's Dreisamstadion.
• The 28-year-old has converted all nine of the spot-kicks he has taken in Germany's top flight.
• Höler now has two goals - half the total he managed in the entire 2020/21 campaign.
• Kübler's goal was his first in the Bundesliga, arriving in his 76 appearance.
• Freiburg played at the Schwarzwaldstadion for the 360th and final time in the Bundesliga (W149, D95, L116).

Watch: Grifo: "It's very emotional"

Freiburg: Flekken - Gulde (Sallai 71'), Lienhart, N. Schlotterbeck - Kübler, Eggestein (Haberer 86'), Höfler (Keitel 61'), Günter (c) - Jeong (Petersen 71'), Höler (Demirovic 71'), Grifo
Unused subs: Uphoff, K. Schlotterbeck, Weißhaupt, Schade
Out: Schmid (match fitness)
Coach: Christian Streich 

Augsburg: Gikiewicz - Gumny, Gouweleeuw (c), Oxford - Framberger (Gruezo 46'), Hahn (Zeqiri 46'), Dorsch (Maier 72'), Caligiuri, Pedersen - Niederlechner (Jensen 72'), Vargas (Cordova 88')
Unused subs: Koubek, Winther, Strobl, Gregoritsch
Out: Bazee (ill), Finnbogason (Achilles' tendon), Iago (shoulder), Moravek (groin) Uduokhai (knock)
Coach: Markus Weinzierl