Eintracht Frankfurt’s captain, David Abraham, was sent off for knocking over Freiburg’s coach, Christian Streich, as their Bundesliga game ended in chaos and red cards on Sunday.
Freiburg were leading 1-0 when the ball went out of play in injury time. Streich let the ball go by as Abraham tried to recover it, and the Frankfurt captain bundled the coach over with a shoulder as he ran past. Upset Freiberg players and staff then chased the defender on to the field.
“He felt provoked but that shouldn’t happen … he knows that,” Frankfurt’s sporting director, Fredi Bobic, said of Abraham. “There will be consequences for everyone involved.”
The Freiburg assistant coach, Florian Bruns, was shown a yellow card and Vincenzo Grifo, who had been substituted, was shown red after VAR picked him up targeting Abraham in the mêlée.
Streich said Abraham apologised to him afterwards and the coach considered the issue to be over.
“Football is a contact sport,” said Streich, who said he tried to brace himself pre-contact. “That was on the wrong side of it, though. It was a heated game, we need to calm down, it’s done, and not have silly talk about it now. At 54 you can be run over by a young buffalo; you can’t hold yourself against it any more.”
Freiburg won 1-0 thanks to Nils Petersen’s 77th-minute goal.