{"id":69159,"date":"2024-03-09T08:25:06","date_gmt":"2024-03-09T08:25:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/freiburgs-gregoritsch-strikes-late-to-sink-west-ham-the-express-tribune\/"},"modified":"2024-03-09T08:25:06","modified_gmt":"2024-03-09T08:25:06","slug":"freiburgs-gregoritsch-strikes-late-to-sink-west-ham-the-express-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/freiburgs-gregoritsch-strikes-late-to-sink-west-ham-the-express-tribune\/","title":{"rendered":"Freiburg’s Gregoritsch strikes late to sink West Ham | The Express Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\nGERMANY:
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

A late tap-in from Michael Gregoritsch gave Freiburg a 1-0 victory against West Ham<\/a> in the first leg of their Europa League last 16 tie on Thursday.<\/p>\n

After a testy opening, Conference League holders West Ham almost took the lead on the 65-minute mark, but Freiburg goalkeeper Noah Atubolu denied Jarrod Bowen with a superb diving save.<\/p>\n

Gregoritsch scored just 11 minutes after coming on, tapping in from a metre out, his fifth goal in seven Europa League games.<\/p>\n

“We played badly today,” admitted West Ham captain Kurt Zouma.<\/p>\n

A “very proud” Freiburg captain Christian Guenter told RTL “we threw everything at them — I think we deserved to win.”<\/p>\n

West Ham appealed for a penalty for handball deep into stoppage time after Noah Weisshaupt touched a Kalvin Phillips shot, sending the referee to the monitor.<\/p>\n

Freiburg<\/a> survived a long VAR review to hang on to a slender lead ahead of next week’s second leg in London.<\/p>\n

“I don’t know if it was the right decision. The decision took a bit of time and the referee took a lot of time. It is what it is. The game is over. I don’t want to go back to it now,” added Zouma.<\/p>\n

“We were a little lucky today,” said goalscorer Gregoritsch. “If a review goes on so long, you have to think to yourself it can’t be that clean cut.”<\/p>\n

Hoping to make the quarter finals for the first time, Freiburg came into the game having held Bayern Munich to a 2-2 draw at the same venue on Friday.<\/p>\n

The teams had already clashed in the group stages, with the English side winning on both occasions.<\/p>\n

The hosts started strongly and almost had the lead after 30 seconds. West Ham defender Vladimir Coufal got a last-ditch block on Roland Sallai’s attempt, setting the tone for a strong opening period for the hosts.<\/p>\n

The visitors had the better of much of the second period, with Konstantinos Mavropanos almost heading past some sleepy Freiburg defending at the far post on the 52-minute mark.<\/p>\n

Atubolu leapt to deny Bowen on the counter after 65 minutes, the ‘keeper getting an outstretched hand on the England winger’s shot.<\/p>\n

Freiburg manager Christian Streich, now in his 12th year as head coach after a playing career at the club, brought on striker Gregoritsch in the 70th minute.<\/p>\n

The move soon paid dividends, with the Austrian forward in the right place at the right time to tap in a low shot from Sallai with nine minutes remaining.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GERMANY: A late tap-in from Michael Gregoritsch gave Freiburg a 1-0 victory against West Ham in the first leg of their Europa League last 16 tie on Thursday. After a testy opening, Conference League holders West Ham almost took the lead on the 65-minute mark, but Freiburg goalkeeper Noah Atubolu denied Jarrod Bowen with a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69160,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.tribune.com.pk\/media\/images\/4W5I_c24XzE_l1709894305-0\/4W5I_c24XzE_l1709894305-0.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t