Freiburg boss Julian Schuster insisted his team had to remain patient before finally getting the goals their performance merited against Union Berlin on Sunday.
Patience pays off for Freiburg during win over Union Berlin
Freiburg moved within two points of the Bundesliga summit after beating Union Berlin, but Julian Schuster's side had to be patient.
Schuster watched on as his team extended their winning run across all competitions to four matches with a 2-0 victory at Europa-Park Stadion.
But Freiburg had to wait until the 55th minute to open the scoring, when Union captain Rani Khedira turned Niklas Beste's cross beyond Frederik Ronnow and into his own net.
Yuito Suzuki doubled Freiburg's advantage 12 minutes later, and the hosts could have added further gloss to the scoreline late on, but Vincenzo Grifo saw his penalty saved.
Freiburg have 19 points after nine matches, the joint-best start to a Bundesliga season in their club history, matching their tally at this stage in 2021-22, with the gap between them and leaders Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund standing at two points heading into the international break.
However, they did not have things all their own way, with the hosts frustrated in the first half.
But Schuster was pleased with the way his side maintained the pressure on the Union goal, while also lauding his defence, which restricted Union to just four shots that generated a combined expected goals value of only 0.35.
"We had to be very patient, but we never lost confidence. We didn't create a huge number of chances, but we gave very little away ourselves," Schuster said.
Freiburg's victory also saw them end their longest winless run against Union in all competitions, having failed to win any of their previous seven meetings against them.
Derry Scherhant was key to the win and has now been directly involved in nine goals in 14 games in all competitions this season, surpassing his total of eight goal involvements (seven goals, one assist) from 49 appearances in 2025-26.
Suzuki, meanwhile, scored his fifth goal in his eighth Bundesliga appearance this term, already bettering his total of four goals in 25 outings last campaign.
Freiburg face Elversberg upon their return to action on November 21, and Maximilian Eggestein said morale was high ahead of the season pausing for the final time in 2026.
"It's nice to go into the international break with a win. It's a good feeling," Eggestein said. "That was exactly how we expected Union to play."
