Late drama as Freiburg end winless streak
Freiburg - Matchday 21 rounded out in dramatic fashion as SC Freiburg snatched their first victory of 2013 at the expense of Fortuna Düsseldorf, courtesy of a late goal from Pavel Krmas.
Pressure from Freiburg
With the match seemingly headed for a scoreless draw, the Czech defender headed home a Max Kruse corner in the 87th minute to earn Christian Streich's men three welcome points and lift them into fifth place ahead of Mainz and Hamburger SV on goal difference.
A high-tempo encounter unfolded from the off at the MAGE-SOLAR Arena, with the home side seeing more of the ball early on. The first real chance of note fell Freiburg's way just over quarter of an hour in and they came within inches of scoring from it, as a fluid move ended with Jonathan Schmid striking Kruse's square ball from the left against the post.
On 25 minutes Jan Rosenthal zipped a low shot from outside the box just wide as Streich's men continued to enjoy the better of the proceedings. Fortuna eventually tested Oliver Baumann when former Freiburger Stefan Reisinger robbed Fallou Diagne of possession near the goalline and unleashed a powerful shot that the home keeper turned away for a corner.
Düsseldorf warm to the task
Four minutes before the interval, Düsseldorf had their second major let-off when Jan Rosenthal teed up Johannes Flum for a shot on the turn which Fortuna custodian Fabian Giefer pushed in the direction of the onrushing Cedric Makiadi, only for the DR Congo international to blast the ball high, wide and handsome when he might have done better.
The first chance after the restart also fell to Makiadi, his header from Kruse's free-kick almost scraping the bar on its way over, while at the other end Martin Latka went just as close for the visitors from a similar scenario. That was indicative of the fact that Fortuna were now gaining an increasing foothold on the contest, against a home team finding it ever more difficult to make inroads into the opposition defence.
Krmas to the rescue
Clear-cut opportunities remained in short supply at both ends, and as the clock ticked down it looked increasingly as if Freiburg would have to settle for their third goalless draw since league action restarted - until Krmas headed home that late corner after Giefer had misjudged the flight of the ball. After that, there was no way back for Fortuna.
The win was the Breisgau outfit's first in seven attempts down the years against Düsseldorf, who drop to 15th place in the table but retain an eight-point lead over 16th-placed 1899 Hoffenheim.
Line-ups and statistics
Angus Davison
