BERLIN – Mario Gomez scored two goals as Stuttgart continued their march up the Bundesliga standings with a 2-1 victory at Freiburg on Friday.
After Gomez opened the scoring in the fourth minute, Nils Petersen equalised for Freiburg in the 53rd minute.
But Gomez tallied again in the 75th minute for a 2-1 lead with his sixth goal in the last 10 matches.
Stuttgart have now won three straight road matches and are undefeated in their seven games under head coach Tayfun Korkut.
That stretch has Stuttgart in eighth place with 37 points – three points from a spot in international play.
“It was a hard-fought victory. Freiburg are a very strong team when they play at home and today we used our chances well. I’m very happy,” Gomez said.
Freiburg remained on 30 points in 14th place with just one win in the last seven games and just four goals scored.
“We were able to get an equaliser riding on the support of our home crowd, but maybe everything got a little out of control at that point and then came their 2-1,” said Petersen.
Stuttgart grabbed the lead straight away in the fourth minute through Gomez, who ran onto a long free kick from near the halfway line into the box and headed it past Freiburg keeper Alexander Schwolow.
🎙️ @Mario_Gomez showing tonight exactly why he has been selected 🇩🇪 #SCFVfB1-2 pic.twitter.com/WWgNRCsKFJ
— Bundesliga English (@Bundesliga_EN) March 16, 2018
Gomez was given a boost of confidence earlier on Friday by being called up for Germany’s up-coming international friendlies against Spain and Brazil.
The visitors remained the better team as Schwolow needed to make saves on attempts from Christian Gentner in the ninth minute and Gomez four minutes later.
Freiburg did a good job controlling the ball with more than 60 percent possession in the first half-hour, but never really challenged Stuttgart keeper Ron-Robert Zieler.
Stuttgart were close again in the 38th minute with Erik Thommy sending a cross from the right side to Daniel Ginzcek, whose header went wide left.
Freiburg equalized in the 53rd minute on a superb effort by Peterson, who first helped win possession in the midfield and then ran on to a through-ball from Nicolas Hoefler before chipping his shot over Zieler for his 13th goal of the season.
High five for Saturday 🖐 #Bundesliga pic.twitter.com/w6kpIkjvva
— Bundesliga English (@Bundesliga_EN) March 17, 2018
Stuttgart regained the lead in the 75th minute on a counter-attack as Andreas Beck sent in a cross which Gomez directed towards goal, but was deflected by Schwolow. The rebound went right to Gomez’s feet, and the veteran striker hit home to make it 2-1.
Gentner nearly ended all doubts in the 87th minute, but his curling shot sailed just wide right.