A Martin Harnik brace this evening saw VfB Stuttgart come away from the badenova-Stadion in Freiburg with a 2-1 victory in the south-western derby.
SC Freiburg were much on top in their home stadium but were made to pay for a hashed clearance from Oliver Barth that allowed Martin Harnik to open the scoring for the visitors just after the half hour.
Papiss Demba Cisse will be disappointed to have not previously opened the scoring for the home side. Firstly, he blasted narrowly wide from the edge of the area inside 60 seconds. Five minutes later he couldn’t make contact with Yacine Abdessadki’s teasing cross from the right. And when did connect with a cross, from a corner, Sven Ulreich was on hand to parry it away from the Stuttgart goal.
This was an ill-tempered derby that consisted of a number of niggling fouls with challenges going in from the start. In all, seven yellow cards were shown over the duration of the game, and Swiss centre back Beg Ferati was stretchered off on 27 minutes albeit in an innocuous challenge from Cacau.
The visitors doubled their lead on 73 minutes when Martin Harnik was left unmarked at the back post following a deep cross from the left. He was given time inside the box in which he used to loft the ball past the hapless Oliver Baumann for a 2-0 lead.
Papiss Cisse finally got his name on the scoresheet. But it proved too little too late for the hosts in the 84th minute.
VfB Stuttgart play in back-to-back Friday evening games as they host Hamburger SV next weekend, while SC Freiburg hope to end their two-game losing streak when they travel to Schalke 04.
