Freiburg 2-2 Borussia Dortmund: 3 players who impressed and 2 who didn't | Bundesliga 2019-20
Freiburg's home stadium - the Schwarzwald-Stadion - played host today to Borussia Dortmund in a clash that ended with Freiburg unable to break Dortmund's historic hold on them. Earlier this year, Dortmund hammered Freiburg 4-0 at the same stadium, but the hosts have been much stronger this season. However, they played just well enough to share the spoils and take a point as consolation.
It was Dortmund who opened the scoring 20 minutes in with a superb goal by Axel Witsel from Thorgan Hazard's corner. In a most unexpected fashion, the high corner from Hazard found its way to an unmarked Witsel who unleashed a one-time volley to the left side of the post.
Both sides picked up more chances in the first half but nothing happened for either side. The second half, however, brought three goals.
Freiburg equalized with a beautiful goal by Luca Waldschmidt in the 55th minute of the game. The striker capped up a beautiful team effort by making one touch to shift the ball onto his left foot and take a shot with the second touch from outside the box. He powered it past the keeper's fingers and into the right bottom corner of the goal.
Achraf Hakimi put Dortmund back in front with an exciting solo effort in the final third. Picking a pass from Jadon Sancho, he cut in at the byline to swiftly dribble his marker and took a left-footed shot at the goal. A deflection helped the ball right into the net.
An own-goal put Freiburg back into contention at the dying embers of the game. Vincenzo Grifo picked up the ball in the final third after a poor clearance by Manuel Akanji. The subsequent cross hit Akanji's leg and was deflected past the stunned keeper and into the goal.
That rounded up the game as a draw with a point going to both sides. Dortmund will be more embarrassed to have let an own-goal in the 89th minute of the game ruin all their hard work. Freiburg, on the other hand, will feel that a loss was underserved and a salvaged draw is a better reward.
Without further ado, let's take a look at three players who impressed and two who didn't.
#5 Luca Waldschmidt impressed for Freiburg
The 23-year-old German had a good game, and he fully deserved to get his name on the scoresheet.
He won three aerial duels, the joint-most in the Freiburg team and his presence was well-felt by Dortmund's defenders. Waldschmidt took four shots at goal, ironically four times more shots than any other player in his team. He put one on target, and it was a worthy goal.
While he didn't fall back to aid his team in defence, he successfully helped in keeping possession and picking the right passes. He had the second-best pass accuracy in Freiburg's starting lineup, which, for any striker, is saying something.