Nils Petersen scored his fourth Bundesliga goal in three games as Freiburg battled to a 1-0 win over Eintracht Frankfurt, who ended the match with nine men.

Freiburg 1-0 Eintracht Frankfurt
Goal: 1-0 Petersen (77')
Red cards: Fernandes (45'+1), Abraham (90'+6'), Grifo (90'+8')

Vincenzo Grifo warmed the palms of Frankfurt goalkeeper Felix Wiedwald early on, but Freiburg were otherwise second best for much of the first half. Erik Durm crashed a first-time effort against the woodwork after Mark Flekken could only parry from Martin Hinteregger, before Frankfurt had a penalty decision - given initially in their favour for Jonathan Schmid's foul on Goncalo Paciencia - overruled following a VAR review. Eintracht had made the most of their numerical advantage in their 5-1 drubbing of Bayern Munich a week ago, but after half chances came and went for Hinteregger and Paciencia were themselves reduced to 10 men following Gelson Fernandes' sending off for two bookable offences.

A man to the good, Freiburg dominated for large periods in the early exchanges of the second half, albeit without seriously testing Wiedwald in the visiting goal. Frankfurt were indebted to captain David Abraham for snuffing out a promising Roland Sallai foray, but still continued to create openings of their own as Filip Kostic fired straight at Flekken and substitute Dominik Kohr whipped an effort just wide. With the game becoming increasingly stretched, the breakthrough arrived in the 77th minute when Luca Waldschmidt cleverly dummied a low Christian Günter cross, allowing Petersen to sweep in his 50th Bundesliga goal in a Freiburg shirt. Flekken denied Durm from range and pulled off a spectacular diving save from Hinteregger, but the contest ended on a sour note when Abraham received his marching orders after barging over Freiburg coach Christian Streich. Grifo - having already been substituted - also saw red for his part in the ensuing melee. Freiburg climb to fourth, leaving Frankfurt four points worse off going into the November international break, in ninth.

Match stats

• Frankfurt failed to scored for the first time since this season.
• Petersen is Freiburg's leading scorer this season with six Bundesliga goals. He has netted all of Freiburg's last four goals in the Bundesliga, and is one goal shy of tying Joachim Löw as Freiburg’s all-time top marksman. His 50 goals to date have been spread over 112 appearances.
• Freiburg have scored a league-leading nine times in the final quarter of matches this season.
• Fernandes has been sent off twice in his 84 Bundesliga appearances.
• Freiburg conceded seven penalties last season, but have yet to do so 11 matches into the 2019/20 campaign.
• Waldschmidt is a Frankfurt youth product and made his Bundesliga debut for the club. He got one over on his former club for the first time, at the sixth attempt.

Watch: Petersen "proud" of Freiburg's form

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Line-ups

Freiburg: Flekken – Lienhart, Koch, Heintz – Schmid, Höfler, Grifo (Waldschmidt 57'), Günter (c) – Sallai (Kwon 76'), Petersen, Höler (Schlotterbeck 90'+4)
Unused subs: Thiede, Gulde, Frantz, Gondorf, Borrello, Itter
Out: Haberer (suspended), Kübler (knee), Tempelmann (knee), Abrashi (muscular), Schwolow (hamstring)
Coach: Christian Streich

Frankfurt: Rönnow – Abraham (c), Ndicka, Hinteregger – Durm (Silva 83'), Sow, Fernandes, Kamada (Gacinovic 67'), Kostic – Dost, Paciencia (Kohr 45')
Unused subs: Wiedwald, Falette, Rode, Hasebe, Chandler, da Costa
Out: Russ (Achilles tendon), Toure (thigh), Trapp (shoulder), de Guzman (match fitness)
Coach: Adi Hütter

About the clubs

Eintracht Frankfurt

Deutsche Bank Park

SC Freiburg

Europa-Park Stadion