Motherwell v Freiburg 20/8/26

[robsterwood]

Germans are cheats. Dive for the free kick for equaliser. Dive for pen. Hope the get beat in the group. 

[stv]

5 hours ago, Orinoco said:

ODonnell on bench. 

Off topic, anyone else experiencing slow site response times?

Yes taking ages to open.. ffor last 2 days

 

[Yoshi-1991]

3 minutes ago, stv said:

Yes taking ages to open.. ffor last 2 days

 

same here, worse on phone than desktop

[SteelmaninOZ]

View from the South stand with Comments from the German fans in the comments 

 

[Kmcalpin]

1 hour ago, thewelllfan said:

Not that we were going to beat Freiburg but it's partly the same issue as last season. We lack physicality if we've got a couple of more physical players in the middle of the park they probably struggle a lot more in that game, we were undone by set-peices against a very good side but it is still frustrating. Thought the new boy up front worked his socks off as well which is all you can really ask for as a lone St for a team playing with 10 men

Yes, very much so. Whilst we'll never be at Freiburg's level, there are valuable lessons to be learnt tonight by the players and management including Nick Daws. It was notable that despite our opponents superior technical ability, 2 of their goals came from brute force and superior physicality. You simply can't beat a big physical defence, when push comes to shove. We don't have a big team height wise and that needs to be recognised and acted upon.  Yes, the new boy up front looked good despite working on scraps.   

[robsterwood]

Let's push for Europe again. That Helsinki game was great. Slightly dissapointed we are out league cup as we getting better. 

[robsterwood]

1 hour ago, grizzlyg said:

Let's be honest , if at start we were told 3-1: freiburg we would say probably right. We gave it our best but 3rd gosl kick in nuts.    We at least had moment of joy with taking lead.  SPH looks good acquisition. 

Ps. Hope you donated to kilbryde hospice buckets. If you saw lady wearing hospice t-shirt near main stand and 100 club that was oor Mrs grizzlyg

I missed first goal didn't get the moment of joy. Feel dissapointed for guys going to Germany as games done. Tried our best but deficiencies showed. 

[Kmcalpin]

2 hours ago, Spiderpig said:

We gave it a go but in reality we were well beaten by a much better team, after scoring a brilliant goal after 2 minutes we never looked like scoring again for the next 94 mins... 

There is no disgrace in being beaten by a much better team, Freiburg are a class above anything we will face in the premiership this season, Ginter is a world cup winner with 51 caps for Germany .

A wonderful night of European football and one I'll remember and cherish for years to come. Freiburg were the best team I've seen at Fir Park since the 1960s (I wasn't at the Dortmund game). Although clearly well off their normal standards, they were a joy to watch. They had technical ability in spades, and were much faster, fitter and stronger than us. It was men against boys. Even if they are well below their normal standard, like tonight, they'd easily beat any team in Scotland. I would have taken a 3-0 defeat at 7.30 and was overjoyed to see us score an early, well worked goal. What a moment that was. A 3-1 reverse was a decent outcome in the end. 

I thought they were so good, and completely dominated the game. Given that its very difficult to assess just how good or bad we were. I thought the referee was very poor and inconsistent and said to my cousin early in the first half that he had a red card in him.  Fortunately it was only one. Freiburg were lucky to win the penalty as there was a clear handball in the build up just in front of us. But thats neither here nor there in the great scheme of things.  I thought our most impressive spell was after Moormann was sent off. We dug in and limited Freiburg's clear cut chances. 

I do like the look of Hodge and Palmer-Houlden. It was also great to see SOD on the pitch again. My main worry was just how poor we were at defending set pieces for example at 2 of the goals. Domestic opponents will have been taking notes of that.  AJ commented on that and it needs some soul searching in various quarters to address. 

A final word about our fans. There's been much criticism of the Bois behaviour but I was proud that a few of those around me tonight showed a sporting side when they applauded Freiburg players off the pitch.