Martin Harnik scored in each half to give Stuttgart a 2-1 win at Freiburg in a scrappy southwestern derby in the Bundesliga on Friday.
Harnik scored against the run of play in the 32nd minute, when he seized on Oliver Barth’s poor clearance from a corner before teeing himself up to shoot through a host of players past the helpless Oliver Baumann.
The unmarked Austria striker made Freiburg pay for missed chances again in the 73rd, when he controlled Cristian Molinaro’s cross before driving a dipping effort to the left corner over the despairing goalkeeper.
Papiss Demba Cisse pulled one back in the 85th, when he took a return pass from Cedrick Makiadi, sent Khalid Boulahrouz the wrong way and slotted the ball between Sven Ulreich’s legs.
With one win from six games, Freiburg are 15th in the table and could end the weekend in the relegation zone. Stuttgart move to third with the other games still to be played.
Freiburg were hoping to bounce back from their 7-0 mauling at Bayern Munich last weekend — its biggest ever Bundesliga defeat — and the home side made the better start after kick-off was delayed by 15 minutes because of a breakdown in tram service.
“After the 7-0 defeat, we knew they’d put us under pressure and they did that very well. They made it very difficult for us,” Stuttgart coach Bruno Labbadia said. “It wasn’t easy.”
Ulreich reacted smartly to keep out Cisse’s header in the 11th — and then again from the Senegal striker on the rebound.
Harnik almost scored in the 15th, firing narrowly wide from a difficult angle, before Zdravko Kuzmanovic shot over as the visitors recovered from their slow start.
With the rain pouring down, Freiburg defender Felix Bastians tried his luck from distance on the slippery grass, his shot whizzing past the right post in the 23rd.
Ulreich’s flying one-handed save denied Stefan Reisinger five minutes later, before Harnik was in the right place to collect Barth’s attempted clearance.
“It was lucky, because I hurt my thigh and that’s why I was standing there. Normally I’d be in closer [to goal for a corner],” Harnik said.
Tackles were flying and the game became increasing fractious with full commitment shown from both sides. Referee Guido Winkmann issued nine yellow cards altogether.
“There were little niggly fouls, but the atmosphere was good,” Harnik said.
Stefan Reisinger fired wide after controlling the ball on his chest before the interval and Ulreich denied him after it, tapping the Freiburg striker’s header over the bar.
“It’s much harder to accept this defeat because we were the better team. In Munich, that wasn’t the case,” Baumann said. “We started well, and did things well, but we missed the early goal and then after they scored it was a little hard to get back into the game ... The chances were there, but unfortunately the goal wasn’t.”
The home side lacked imagination going forward, with Stuttgart invariably able to clear attempted crosses for the head of Cisse. The direct approach didn’t work either, Julian Schuster firing a free kick harmlessly wide in the 69th.
Harnik punished Freiburg four minutes later, when he scored his third goal of the season.
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