SC Freiburg came out on top against FC Basel in the first-ever meeting between the sides, recording a 2-1 win at Europa-Park Stadion to begin their UEFA Europa League (UEL) campaign in perfect fashion.
Basel were keen to make up for lost time as they competed in their first UEL main draw match in six years, but they knew they had their work cut out for them against a Freiburg side who have been in the upper echelons of the Bundesliga in recent times.
The Swiss side very nearly made a dream start when, with only two minutes on the clock, a ball into the area from the left was met by Albian Ajeti, whose headed effort was destined for the bottom left-hand corner but was denied by an impressive diving save from Noah Atubolu, who got across acrobatically to deny the forward.
This intervention would prove important as, just after the half-hour mark, the hosts took the lead. A ball into the Basel area was initially intercepted, but it fell kindly to Patrick Osterhage, whose first-time left-footed effort from 25 yards found the bottom left-hand corner of the net to give Freiburg a deserved half-time lead based on the balance of play.
The game was still in the balance with the home side far from running away with the contest, however, with Freiburg having got on the scoresheet at least once after the break in 11 of their last 12 matches, it was no surprise when they doubled their advantage 12 minutes after the restart.
Vincenzo Grifo’s ball into the area from the left was headed goalwards by Maximilian Eggestein, with goalkeeper Mirko Salvi getting his left hand to it but failing to prevent the ball from crossing the goal line, as confirmed by the technology.
The visitors gave themselves faint hope of completing a comeback when Philip Otele curled home brilliantly from the edge of the area with five minutes remaining, but it proved too little too late as the hosts held on for their fifth successive home win in the UEL.
They will hope that this is the start of consecutive runs to the knockout stages of the competition, while Basel will need to dust themselves off for the visit of Stuttgart at the start of October.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Maximilian Eggestein (Freiburg)