Freiburg drop Hertha Berlin, Paderborn top Hannover to shuffle the relegation zone
SC Freiburg took advantage of some slack Hertha BSC Berlin defending and its moribund attack to jump into 15th place and out of the Bundesliga relegation zone with a 2-0 victory in the Olympiastadion that dropped Hertha behind them on goal-difference. It was just the fourth win of the season for Freiburg, whose nine draws have them fighting against relegation with 21 points from 21 matches.
Hertha fell into the bottom three. They are also on 21 points but are minus 14 on goal difference to Freiburg's minus seven. They continued a sorry run of Sunday performances, beaten for the sixth straight time in the weekend television fixture.
New Hertha boss Pal Dardai played Salomon Kalou and Julian Schieber together up front in an attempt to jump start an attack that has been notably unproductive at home, but the fludity wasn't there. Kalou didn't last the 90 minutes after returning from the Africa Cup of Nations, coming off with 15 left to play.
Freiburg got on top in the 14th minute when Felix Klaus beat keeper Thomas Kraft and defender Peter Pekarik at the near post to a cross from Karim Guede after a quick thrown-in by Christian Guenter caught the Hertha defense sleeping. Klaus' flicked his shot off the inside of the near post and over the line.
Hertha didn't lack initiative in the opening half, but failed to produce the necessary precision. Kalou almost slipped Valentin Stocker in after 11 minutes, but the ball broke away from the Swiss international before he could get off a shot at Roman Buerki's goal. Klaus made a late tackle in the 29th minute to prevent Schieber and Stocker from linking up with Niko Schulz in front. Kalou then got into a good position in the 37th minute but his shot was weak and no trouble for Buerki. Seconds after the restart Schieber nearly found Kalou, who slid, but could not reach a cross in front of Buerki.
Freiburg got the cushion it needed when Maximilian Philipp, a former Hertha youth player who was born in Berlin, powered home a 52nd minute bullet header to a Jonathan Schmid corner kick. It was Freiburg's first corner of the match and Kraft had no chance as Philipp came free to head from eight yards. It was Philipp's first Bundesliga goal with his family watching in his home town.
Hertha's attacking frustration continued when Buerki had to be at full stretch to keep out a Stocker drive in the 56th minute and they faded noticeably down the stretch, unable to close the deficit. Stocker had a final chance from two yards out with four minutes to play but could not get any power as the ball fell between his feet.
Alban Meha's free kick 11 minutes from the finish gave relegation-threatened Paderborn all three points at Hannover as they rallied to win the Sunday night game, 2-1. That result dropped Hertha into 17th place while the winners jumped to 12th although they are still just two points ahead of both Freiburg and Hertha.
Hannover made much of the running but could not break through until after the hour, then saw their advantage quickly evaporate.
Marcelo was alone at the left post to collect Joselu's header-on to a free kick from the right to send Hannover into their short-lived lead. The 66th-minute strike came just after Paderborn's Sueleyman Koc had a great chance cleared off the line when he broke in on the right.
Srdjan Lakic leveled matters seven minutes later as he drifted away from defenders toward the right post, then headed Florian Hartherz's cross back past Ron-Robert Zieler from close range. Zieler got a hand on Meha's free kick at his top-left corner but was beaten by the pace of the shot. It was the first free kick goal of the season for Paderborn and climaxed the highest scoring round of the Bundesliga season.
Matchday 21 produced 38 goals, three more than Matchday 13, which had been the highest-scoring round.
