SC Freiburg winger Vincenzo Grifo believes his side showed plenty of character in their late push against Bayern Munich, despite ultimately falling to a 3-1 defeat at the Europa-Park Stadion on Sunday evening.
Julian Schuster's side found themselves two goals behind at the interval following strikes from Dayot Upamecano and Serge Gnabry, before a Tom Bischof own goal in the 82nd minute gave the hosts renewed hope.
However, Bayern goalkeeper Jonas Urbig produced some important interventions to preserve the visitors' advantage, before Michael Olise sealed the victory in stoppage time.
Speaking to DAZN after the final whistle, Grifo acknowledged the quality of the opposition but insisted Freiburg had always believed they could find a way back into the contest.
"Of course, Bayern have a lot of quality and allowed us relatively few chances in the first half," explained the veteran attacker.
"That's FC Bayern. They have very, very high quality.
"At half-time, we said that it could still be a dangerous scoreline, even for Bayern. If we score a goal, we'll have the fans and the stadium behind us again.
"And then you could see that in the 80th or 81st minute, we were back in the game and perhaps had one or two opportunities."
Grifo also offered an insight into Freiburg's tactical approach, explaining how their attempts to press Bayern high up the pitch left them vulnerable to counterattacks.
"We wanted to go man-for-man today. Against Bayern, we wanted to press high and give their players as little space as possible.
"But of course, there's always a risk. If you lose a duel, the opposition can suddenly have a clear run towards goal, as happened with the first goal.
"We corrected that during the half-time team talk and tried to do things better. I think a lot more worked for us in the second half."
While the Breisgau side come away from the weekend with nothing, Grifo was encouraged by Freiburg's determination in the closing stages, when they continued to threaten through set pieces.
"We had another free-kick towards the end, three or four corners, and those situations can always be dangerous.
"We told ourselves that we always have to believe in ourselves. We have that quality, and that's what we did.
"Unfortunately, it wasn't enough in the end."
