Motherwell 1-3 SC Freiburg: Bloody, but Unbowed

Regan Charles-Cook gave us a dream start, and despite showing resilience for so long, we eventually succumbed to a Matthias Ginter double and late Keisuke Goto header.

Walking up to Fir Park, the tension, excitement, hope. It was palpable. As your Dispatch team wandered round to the Tommy McLean (don’t leave it to the last minute folks…), the queues, the noise, the buzz. This wasn’t just another home European tie. This was much, much more.

Line-ups

1Paulsen

3Girdwood-Reich78′

4Knight-Lebel

5Moormann

18Maswanhise70′

45Longelo

71Hodge78′

8Fadinger

19Said

11Lowry70′

17Charles-Cook45′

31Matanović80′

19Beste73′

14Suzuki73′

7Scherhant90′

8Eggestein

16Engelhardt

29Treu

28Ginter

37Rosenfelder80′

33Makengo

1Backhaus

Alfred Johansson

Motherwell · 3-5-2 SC Freiburg · 4-2-3-1

Motherwell

Substitutes

47 Seb Palmer-Houlden On at 45′
23 Ewan Wilson On at 70′
77 Willy Vogt On at 70′
2 Stephen O'Donnell On at 78′
25 Olly Whyte On at 78′

Unused

Matty Connelly, Mikey Booth, Zander McAllister, Aaron Thomson, Blane Watson, Luca Ross, Jack McConnell

Head coach

Alfred Johansson

SC Freiburg

1 Matthias Backhaus
29 Philipp Treu
28 Matthias Ginter
37 Marc Rosenfelder Off at 80′
33 Julien Makengo
8 Maximilian Eggestein
16 Yannik Engelhardt
19 Junior Beste Off at 73′
14 Yuito Suzuki Off at 73′
7 Daniel Scherhant Off at 90′
31 Ivan Matanović Off at 80′

Substitutes

22 Christian Irié On at 73′
32 Vincenzo Grifo On at 73′
3 Philipp Lienhart On at 80′
42 Keisuke Goto On at 80′
27 Berkan Yılmaz On at 90′

Unused

Florian Müller, Jonathan Huth, Almedin Jung, Lucas Kübler, Christian Günter, Bilal Ogbus, Patrick Osterhage

The Well welcomed last season Europa League finalists to Fir Park, and a side with a high pedigree. In their lineup was World Cup Winner, DFB Pokal and DFL-Supercup winner Matthias Ginter. The Europa League team of the season included Freiburg’s midfielder and captain Maximilian Eggestein. Japanese internationals, who appeared at the recent World Cup, Yuito Suzuki and Keisuke Goto feature for Freiburg, with the latter a new edition to the squad, and Japan’s second youngest player at a WC. German born Italian international Vincenzo Grifo; a modern day Freiburg legend, winning the 2. Bundesliga with Freiburg on the bench. Did we mention Europa League finalists last season?!?

Make no mistake. This is top quality opposition. And yet, we flew out the traps. Played our game from minute 1. Passing round the back, before a ball down the left for Emmanuel Longelo. A driving run forward. A pull back in the box, and