Freiburg captain Christian Günter speaks on overcoming adversity and new team slogan

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SC Freiburg are once again flying high after victory in last night’s Europa League opener send them into the Bundesliga weekend winners in three matches on-the-trot. After losing their first two league fixtures of the young campaign, matters appeared quite different just a couple of weeks ago. Fortunately for the Breisgauer, the team opted to grab onto the momentum picked up from a dramatic late comeback win over Stuttgart and never look back.

The energy gleaned from last weekend’s 0-3 away win over Werder Bremen carried over into Wednesday’s home UEL fixture. The midfield double-six tandem of Maximilian Eggestein and Patrick Osterhage performed especially well. Both players scored in the 2-1 victory over FC Basel. Off the scoresheet, the intangibles the duo brought to the game were almost immeasurable.

Time and again, Eggestein and Osterhage fired up the home crowd with robust midfield ball wins and courageous sprints forward. Osterhage – who also earned man-of-the-match honors – didn’t hesitate to put the hosts up 1-0 when a clearance landed at his feet in the 31st. Eggestein headed home what would prove the match-winner in the 56th.

Squad captain Christian Günter praised the duo specifically while speaking in the mixed zone last night. The 32-year-old eight-times-capped German international also spoke on the celebratory T-shirts donned by the Freiburg players as they faced the FanKurve last night.

Freiburg supporters printed up “Kein Weg zu weit” (“No journey too far“) tops for their slumping team over the September international break. Vincenzo Grifo received the shirts and distributed them to his teammates.

“Yeah, the twins!” Günter said to a chorus of chuckles when asked about Osterhage and Eggestein. “In all seriousness, I have to say that those two work incredibly hard for the team. They’ve absolutely earned it. Eggestein had plenty of chances last year [to score], but the ball just wouldn’t go in. That’s absolutely great that those two scored goals.”

“That’s what distinguishes us,” Günter said of the team’s new motto. “Working together as a team to go the extra mile for each other. The fans do that for us too. That’s something for us to latch onto because I think we’re very, very good as a team. Ultimately, you can learn from defeats, and that’s what we did. That saying sums up quite well why we’re playing in the Europa League this year.”

“We analyzed what we need to bring to the pitch,” Günter said of the team’s recent turnaround. “We worked on that as a team. We worked very hard on that during the international break and also the week after. It’s great that it’s producing results right away. Sometimes you have to go through some adversity first.“

GGFN | Peter Weis