For its second trip to Ticino in three days, Fribourg-Gottéron did not repeat the brilliant performance achieved against Lugano (5-1 victory). The fault lies with the combative Leventins. “Today was just not our day,” admits Dragons coach Lars Leuenberger. In the 9th minute, Tommaso De Luca did excellent work along the strip, managing to serve Bürgler in the middle of four Friborg defenders, who were too passive in this action.
The notion of “on the spot” takes on its full meaning, because the Dragons have not given up at the foot of the Gotthard. Their domination in the shooting statistics after two thirds testifies to this. After 40 minutes, Lars Leuenberger’s players totaled 21 shots against only 5 (!) for the Ticino. During the middle third, Ambri-Piotta only had one shot on target against Reto Berra. “We dominated, but we couldn’t score. It’s a bit disappointing,” said Nathan Marchon. “But the effort was made for 60 minutes, which is positive,” adds the Friborg striker.
With good memories of DiDo
The Leventins raised their heads in the third third, and without the saving intervention of the crossbar, Reto Berra would have conceded a second goal. Everything ultimately came down to penalties, where Chris DiDomenico shone by scoring two classy penalties against his former teammates. On the Friborg side, only Marcus Sörensen managed to deceive the excellent Gilles Senn.
This point gleaned does not fundamentally change the situation for Gottéron, still 8th with 49 points, four points behind Zug, 6th. For their next match, the Dragons will host Davos on Thursday. The Graubünden will certainly be keen to take revenge after the lost semi-final in the Spengler Cup. “We are going to play at home, where we are very good, especially at the start of the match. It will be up to us to send a message,” warns Friborg defender Yannick Rathgeb.
ATS / RadioFr. – Léo Martinetti
Swiss
