Doan grabs late winner for Freiburg to leave Hoffenheim last

Sun, Mar 12, 2023
Other News (AP)

BERLIN (AP) - Japan midfielder Ritsu Doan struck late for Freiburg to beat Hoffenheim 2-1 on Sunday and leave American coach Pellegrino Matarazzo's team bottom of the Bundesliga. It was Matarazzo's fifth defeat in five games since taking over as Hoffenheim coach and it stretched the team's winless run to 14 games. The visitors got off to a terrible start with Maximilian Eggestein scoring for Freiburg in the fifth minute. Hoffenheim struggled to break through Freiburg's well-organized defense but finally saw its persistence rewarded when Munas Dabbur set up Angelo Stiller to equalize after the break. Matarazzo brought on attacking players with 15 minutes remaining as he went for the win, then saw defender Ozan Kabak sent off with his second yellow card for knocking the ball away in the 84th. There was still time for Doan to score with a volley of Noah Weißhaupt's cross in the 89th. The win lifted Freiburg to fourth place. Union Berlin was a point behind before its game later at Wolfsburg. Also later, Bayer Leverkusen was playing at Werder Bremen. ___ More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports