Matanović on target again in Freiburg’s win over Köln

Igor Matanović had another eventful match for Freiburg as he scored the winner before missing a penalty-kick in a 2-1 victory over Köln.

The visitors took an early lead, but Freiburg were in front by half-time thanks to their in-form striker. All three first-half goals were scored by Freiburg players, although Max Rosenfelder’s clinical finish happened to be in the wrong net.

The center-back gets one in Noah Atubolu’s net in his desperate attempt at clearing Linton Maina’s cross. However, Freiburg were down for only 90 seconds as Derry Scherhant provided a cheeky finish to level the score.

Igor Matanović needed three clear-cut chances to finally score the winner against Maccabi Tel Aviv on Thursday, but he found the net early on this one. The Croat striker was alert to score from a rebound after his header was blocked by a Köln defender. He has scored in three successive games in all competitions.

The visitors started the second half strongly as Ragnar Ache and Marius Bülter had great chances inside the first five minutes. They lost momentum afterwards, though, with the next golden chance falling into the feet of Matanović.

Freiburg were awarded a dubious penalty-kick after an unfortunate handball by Alessio Castro-Montes from Matanović’s shot. However, Matanović’s tame effort was saved by Marvin Schwäbe. Köln’s captain also denied Jan-Niklas Beste and substitute Lucas Höler to keep his side in the game, but his teammates failed to create anything of note at the other end apart from an unsuccessful shout for an injury-time penalty-kick.

Köln will host the opening fixture of matchday 20 when they entertain Wolfsburg. Freiburg, who are now up to seventh in the Bundesliga standings, will face two tricky away games in the space of four days against LOSC Lille and VfB Stuttgart.