SC Freiburg’s trip to the Mediterranean ended in a sobering 3-0 defeat on Thursday, as AS Monaco made it two wins out of two in the league phase of UEFA’s third-tier competition.
The breakthrough came from a player Freiburg know well. Paris Brunner, the 20-year-old forward born in Dortmund and capped by Germany at youth level, scooped the ball over centre-back Max Rosenfelder just before the half-time whistle, raced clear and smashed it past Mio Backhaus. The Freiburg goalkeeper had already kept out efforts from Mamadou Coulibaly and from Brunner himself, and his side had lost midfielder Yannik Engelhardt to an injury after a quarter of an hour.
Julian Schuster’s team were far livelier after the interval. Lukas Kübler was twice denied from close range by former Leverkusen keeper Lukáš Hrádecký, and Matthias Ginter could not turn in the rebound. For long spells the Bundesliga’s third-placed side camped in Monaco’s half, yet the clear openings stayed rare.
Monaco waited, then struck on the break. Seven minutes from time Backhaus palmed away a shot from substitute Ansu Fati, only for Lamine Camara to fire in the loose ball. In added time Fati made it three, taking the ball down while facing away from goal, then spinning to finish low into the corner.
Schuster admitted his side had lacked energy early on but was pleased with the response. In his view, the final margin made Monaco look better than they had been.
The noise inside the half-empty Stade Louis II came mostly from around 800 travelling Freiburg fans in a sold-out away section, with Prince Albert II watching from the stands. Monaco move up to sixth in the 36-team table; Freiburg, beaten narrowly at Leverkusen last weekend, have now lost twice in a few days.
