West Ham's European hopes dampened by fighting Freiburg display
Christian Streich’s decision to leave his side unchanged from the one that held Bayern Munich to a draw six days ago, as well as David Moyes’ customary goalkeeper swap in European competition being his only change, suggested both managers had full confidence in their respective teams’ capabilities.
On the face of it, that worked in favour of the hosts, who dominated the first period with 62 per cent possession.
Ultimately, though, they could only muster a single shot on target - a weak half-volley sent straight into the gloves of Łukasz Fabiański from Lucas Höler’s left foot.
The visitors’ game plan was clearly to defend rigidly, hit on the counter when possible and, most importantly, take a positive result back to the London Stadium - where they remained undefeated in the group stages - for the second leg.
Jarrod Bowen struck the only other attempt on target of a slow first half - a wasteful effort on his part as he continued his search for a first continental goal since his winner in last campaign’s UEFA Europa Conference League final.
The forward shot directly at Noah Atubolu in the Freiburg goal at the end of a rare attacking foray.
A change in pace after the restart saw Konstantinos Mavropanos presented with the chance to open the scoring, but could only place his header onto the post from James Ward-Prowse’s deep corner.
That opportunity gave the Hammers something to build on, but their poor recent record in Germany - they had triumphed on only one of their five previous prior trips to - in the back of their minds, they once again retreated.
That turned out to be their downfall as Streich’s proactive substitutions won the battle for the Breisgau Brazilians with little time remaining.
Roland Sallai’s mishit effort from the edge of the area was read by fresh strike partner Gregoritsch, who had the easy task of tapping in his fifth goal in the competition this season with Fabiański slow to react.
Moyes withdrew his big guns, suggesting he was looking ahead to next week’s meeting in the English capital, though they were almost given a lifeline when Noah Weisshaupt appeared to handle the balll in the area in the final minute of stoppage time.
The subsequent VAR review went on for over four minutes before referee Alejandro Hernández denied a spot-kick, leaving a bad taste in the mouth of the English side upon the final whistle.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Michael Gregoritsch (SC Freiburg)
