Hertha BSC continues to stagger towards the table cellar. Substitute keeper Marcel Lotka was also unable to prevent the next clear slap for the Berliners with his convincing debut at 0:3 (0:1) at SC Freiburg.
Marcel Lotka couldn’t really be happy about his successful Bundesliga debut. After the capital club’s third bankruptcy in a row, the substitute keeper from Hertha BSC smiled 0: 3 (0: 2) at European Cup candidate SC Freiburg, despite the numerous compliments for his performance as a representative of the corona-infected goalkeeper Alexander Schwolow.
“I had imagined it differently,” said Lotka sky– Microphone with a blank stare: “This defeat really hurts.” The pain of the 20-year-old was all too understandable, not only because of the failed reparation for the previous 1: 6 home debacle against runner-up RB Leipzig.
Even in the eighth competitive game after the turn of the year, Berlin failed to win – Berlin continues to stagger towards the bottom of the table. The Italian Vincenzo Grifo ensured the sixth home win of the Breisgauers in the early stages with a penalty kick (12th) for the lead. Kevin Schade (83rd) and Lucas Höler (86th) increased the result in the final phase.
Hertha behind after just twelve minutes
Guest trainer Tayfun Korkut had wanted to talk to his team before leaving for southern Germany, regardless of Schwolow’s absence. Korkut justified Lotka’s nomination as a replacement for Schwolow with further personnel concerns.
After twelve minutes, however, Lotka’s hopes of a clean sheet debut in the Bundesliga were gone. After Hertha’s defender Linus Gechter brought down Roland Sallai in his own penalty area, Grifo took the opportunity from the point and made it 1-0 for Freiburg.
The lead of the hosts was well deserved due to their greater agility. Korkut’s team, on the other hand, hesitated too often in the first minutes of the game – the uncertainty after the last seven competitive games without a sense of achievement was clearly noticeable in the capital team.
Schade and Höler put the lid on it
In the period that followed, Freiburg could have made the decision in their favor before the break. But the team of SC coach Christian Streich did not use their superiority to score more goals. And was very lucky on the other side: the hosts’ defense was just able to block a surprising shot by Stevan Jovetic.
After about an hour, the guests visibly tried harder to prevent their eighth bankruptcy of the season on foreign pitches. But without luck. After Grifo missed the chance to score his sixth goal of the season, Schade with his fourth goal of the season and Höler with his fifth goal of the current season in the final phase destroyed all Berlin’s hopes of at least a point.
