Adamu pen earns Freiburg hard-fought point in Bologna

Freiburg faced one of their toughest group stage tests on Thursday evening as they travelled to the Stadio Renato Dall’Ara to take on Bologna. The hosts, one of two Serie A representatives in this season’s Europa League alongside Roma, took to the field in their striking sky-blue strip and looked the more assured outfit during the early exchanges.

As expected, the Rossoblu dominated possession and exuded confidence on the ball, while Freiburg initially sat back and tried to settle into the game. Neither side managed an attempt on goal during a cagey opening 13 minutes, with the match characterised by tense midfield battles and careful probing.

The first real opening came when Riccardo Orsolini picked out Santiago Castro with a clever pass, the latter firing into the side-netting from a tight angle. Freiburg responded shortly after, with Philipp Lienhart heading well over the bar from a Phillip Treu cross in the 21st minute.

Moments later, the visitors came close to breaking the deadlock. After a corner was flicked back into the danger zone by Maximilian Eggestein, Johan Manzambi’s effort from 12 yards was cleared off the line by Castro to keep the score level.

Bologna opened the scoring in the 29th minute, capitalising on a myriad of Freiburg errors. The visitors failed to deal with Odgaard’s cross, Nicolò Cambiaghi’s shot was spilt by Noah Atubolu, and Riccardo Orsolini was on hand to smash the rebound into the roof of the net.

Freiburg came out for the second half with renewed energy and nearly found an equaliser in the 54th minute. Philipp Lienhart met a corner with a powerful header, only to be denied by a superb reflex save from Łukasz Skorupski. However, a VAR check from the same incident revealed a handball by Santiago Castro, and the referee pointed to the spot.

Junior Adamu made no mistake from twelve yards, calmly sending Skorupski the wrong way with a precise finish into the bottom-left corner to bring Freiburg level. It was a deserved reward for a much-improved start to the second half from Julian Schuster’s side.