“I have to go hug Friedl.”

SC Freiburg striker Michael Gregoritsch expressed sympathy for his friend and Austrian national team colleague Marco Friedl following a decisive play in Saturday’s 2-0 win over Bremen. 

The 0-5 defeat to FC Bayern München may have taken place just six days ago, but SC Freiburg are once again riding high after a emotional win over FC St. Pauli in the Pokal. Even if the loss to the record champions stung a bit, the team can still remain proud of cruising through to the Europa League knockout stages on maximum points.
“It’s really fun,” SCF striker Michael Gregoritsch said afterwards,” We manage to put in a good performance on the pitch every three days – Munich excepted. We earn the necessary luck. We do it well, provoke situations and then, thank goodness, win the games.”

Gregoritsch found himself involved with friend and Austrian national team colleague Marco Friedl on a play that heavily influenced the game just prior to the quarter-of-an-hour mark. Friedl was sent off on a straight red for denying his countryman a clear goal-scoring opportunity.

“First of all, I’m sorry for Marco, because he really is a very good friend of mine,” Gregoritsch said when asked about the scene, “Unfortunately, it was the case that I put the ball past and could shoot alone on goal. He leaned in and pulled me. I see I can’t finish and I go down. I can’t simply say ‘it’s a good friend of mine and I should stay up’.”

Gregoritsch did note that he felt Bremen did a superb job defending even after being reduced to ten-men. From the striker’s perspective, the disciplined and shorthanded defensive ranks made him feel “as if I was running in circles”.

In the process of talking about the one of his big misses in the match and the upcoming Europa League fixture against Olympiakos Piraeus, Gregoritsch had to cut the interview short upon spotting Friedl in the interview zone.

“I have to go hug Friedl and hope he hugs me back,” the Austrian attacker concluded.

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