Patrick Osterhage and Johan Manzambi reflect on scoring first Freiburg goals | OneFootball

Freiburg have their momentum back and can once again dream of Europe after defeating direct European rivals Borussia Mönchengladbach away on Saturday. Julian Schuster’s SCF ended a five match Bundesliga winless run dating back to their 5-0 thrashing of Werder Bremen in late February. The Breisgauer also found themselves reeling after recent home defeats to Union Berlin and Borussia Dortmund.

Schuster’s team ended up grabbing their first league win in nearly two months in dramatic fashion. Young attacker Johan Manzambi netted the winning 1-2 goal in the 90th minute. Few will find themselves surprised to learn that the 19-year-old’s goal constituted his first in Freiburg colors. Manzambi nevertheless wasn’t alone in reaching that milestone. Former Bochum midfielder Patrick Osterhage’s goal at 1-1 was also the 25-year-old’s first SCF tally.

Both scoring debutants commented on their feats later in the mixed zone. Manzambi also garnered praise from squad captain Christian Günter in his Sky Germany interview and Schuster himself at the post-match press conference. Schuster had plenty of praise to share for all his youngsters as Manzambi, Kiliann Sildillia, and Jordy Makengo all made significant contributions off the bench.

“I played in Bochum for three years and was always battling relegation,” Osterhage – as quoted by Kicker – said. “To be honest, it’s a lot more fun up here. It wasn’t my best header to be honest. To make it 1-1 straight away is [nevertheless] good in a game like this – and scoring the first goal for Freiburg isn’t too bad either.”

“There were many too many thoughts [in my head after scoring the goal],” Manzambi added, noting that an image of his brother flashed in his mind before his teammates (noticing he wasn’t celebrating) jumped all over him, “What kind of goal celebration will I do? He [my brother] always told me that I would score soon. The goal was him today.”

GGFN | Peter Weis