Demirovic spearheads Freiburg to historic win

Freiburg 5-0 Cologne
Goals: 1-0 Demirovic (18'), 2-0 Höfler (39'), 3-0 Sallai (59'), 4-0 Lienhardt, 5-0 Höler

On a six-match unbeaten streak at kick-off, Freiburg have been Bundesliga’s most in-form team for the last few weeks and they duly began with confidence against a Cologne side hovering just above the relegation zone. They took the lead early on when Demirovic capitalised on a Timo Horn error, out-jumping his marker to head into an empty net. The Black Forest club were the better side throughout the half, tirelessly harrying their visitors and not allowing them any time to settle. That aggressive approach paid off shortly before the interval when Nicolas Höfler robbed Salih Özcan of the ball on the edge of the Cologne penalty area before slotting past Horn to give the hosts a deserved half-time lead. There was very little to see from Cologne at the other end, a tame shot from Marius Wolf that was comfortably saved by Florian Müller the closest they came to causing the home side any trouble.

It was a similar story in the second half as Freiburg put the visitors on the back foot, pressing high and with purpose. However, they struggled to get behind a deep-lying away side initially, and although Wolf had two fiercely struck shots for Cologne in quick succession – one saved by Müller and one whizzing over – they were both very much against the run of play. Christian Streich’s side effectively ended the game as a contest on 59 minutes when Demirovic skipped past two defenders on the left before crossing for Roland Sallai to sweep in at the near post. Demirovic was involved again as Freiburg added gloss to the scoreline in the closing stages, the striker heading Vincenzo Grifo’s corner back across goal to give Philipp Lienhart the simplest of headers. Worse was still to come for Cologne as substitute Lucas Höler scored almost a carbon copy of Sallai’s strike, side-footing a powerful effort in from Christian Günter’s left-wing cross to seal a deserved and historic win for the club.

• Demirovic netted his second goal of the season, both of which have come at home.
• Höfler ended a 37-game scoreless drought, netting for the first time since October 2019 with his sixth Bundesliga goal.
• With 28 goals from just 15 matches, this is the most prolific Freiburg side in the last 26 years. The last time they scored so many was in 1994/95, when they had 30 by this stage of the season.
• Sallai scored his fourth league goal of the season, equalling his combined tally for the last two campaigns (two in each). He hit the target for the first time at home, and with Freiburg's first shot of the second half.
• Lienhart scored his third goal of 2020/21, all of which have come from corners.
• This is just the ninth time Freiburg have scored five times in a single game.

Freiburg: Müller - Lienhart, Schlotterbeck, Gulde (Heintz 80') - Kübler (Tempelmann 75'), Santamaria, Höfler, Günter (c) - Sallai (Höler 66'), Demirovic, (Petersen 75') Grifo (Jeong 75')
Unused subs: Uphoff, Abrashi, Til, Keitel
Out: Flekken (elbow), Schmid (thigh), Itter (muscular), Kwon (knee), Schmid (thigh)
Coach: Christian Streich

Cologne: T. Horn - Schmitz, Mere (J. Horn 57'), Bornauw, Hector (c) - Wolf, Özcan (Rexhbecaj 46'), Skhiri, Jakobs (Czichos 82')- Duda (Thielmann 46') - Modeste (Arokodare 70')
Unused subs: Zieler, Katterbach, Ehizibue, Drexler
Out: Andersson (knee), Kainz (knee)
Coach: Markus Gisdol