Freiburg (dpa/lsw) – The Baden-Württemberg duel with VfB Stuttgart is always a special game for Vincenzo Grifo, who comes from Pforzheim. That’s why the 28-year-old hopes that he and his team can convince in the home game against the Swabians on Saturday (3:30 p.m. / Sky) as they did on Wednesday evening in the 4-1 round of 16 of the DFB Cup at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim. As compensation for the previous clap in Dortmund (1:5), Grifo had seen the victory at the North Baden competitor. And like his coach, he hopes that the somewhat disappointing start of the second half of the season for Freiburg in the league is now over.
“It’s important that we get a lot of energy back on the pitch, physically and mentally,” said SC coach Christian Streich on Friday. “I’m optimistic, but it also requires the will to start again with all consistency.” After not only Grifo missed that in Dortmund, he was omnipresent again on Wednesday – and as a double goal scorer also “man of the match”. In the Bundesliga, he is his club’s top scorer with four goals and nine assists.
Together with captain Christian Günter, Grifo forms the “left anchor”, as both players call their axis – and he also impresses VfB coach Pellegrino Matarazzo. “Our right side needs an enormous defensive performance against Günter and Grifo,” he warned during the week. “It’s a duo that is extremely well attuned.”
The two professionals, who are also private friends, understand each other almost blindly. “They have known each other for a long time, have different qualities and strengths, and they play regularly,” said Streich, explaining part of the recipe for success. “They are both football mad, they go into detail and want to be able to read the game.”
Left-back Günter also repeatedly pushes dynamically towards the penalty area, but has not yet scored this season. The 28-year-old has already contributed six assists, one of them in the 3-2 win in the first leg in Stuttgart. Grifo and Günter are also responsible for almost all standards at SC – which Matarazzo also identified as a great strength of the Breisgauer.
The early goals in the cup game gave the team strength and self-confidence, Grifo explained after reaching the quarter-finals. SC also scored early on the third day of the league match in Stuttgart, with Woo-yeong Jeong and Lucas Höler scoring twice. At that time there were at least 25,000 spectators who created a good atmosphere. With only 500 visitors in the Europa-Park stadium, that is unlikely to succeed. “It hurts,” said Streich. “If the stadium were full, what would be going on there in terms of atmosphere.” He couldn’t compensate for that with an emotional address to his players.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:220121-99-799852/4
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