The Motherwell team look dejected after SC Freiburg's Igor Matanovic scored to make it 2-1SNS

Motherwell's two defeats to Freiburg are their only losses in nine games this season

At a glance

  • Scherhant nets for Freiburg within five minutes

  • Goalkeeper Backhaus fumbles Longelo strike to level score on night

  • Motherwell reduced to 10 when Girdwood-Reich sent off

  • Matanovic, Irie and Goto net to take tie away

Jack Herrall
BBC Sport Scotland

Motherwell's Conference League journey is over after a rampant Freiburg side overwhelmed them 4-1 in Germany in their play-off second leg.

Trailing last season's Europa League finalists 3-1 on aggregate, Alfred Johansson's men had an almighty task to qualify for the league phase, after coming through two rounds of qualifiers to reach this stage.

And the visitors were further behind in the opening five minutes.

Winger Derry Scherhant burst in behind to latch onto a smart through ball, opened up his body, and curled it past the onrushing Alex Paulsen.

Not to be deterred, Motherwell levelled on the night after a speculative Emmanuel Longelo strike from 30 yards was inexplicably spilled into his own net by goalkeeper Mio Backhaus.

However, Motherwell fell by the wayside in the second half after Jake Girdwood-Reich was shown a straight red card for a lunging challenge.

In the next six minutes, Freiburg scored two headers from inswinging corners, first through striker Igor Matanovic, followed by Cyriaque Irie glancing in.

The Bundesliga side remained relentless, hitting the bar, a post, and having a shot cleared off the line in the space of 60 seconds, and a powerful Maximilian Eggestein effort was well saved.

And the tie was finished when Keisuke Goto was left unmarked in the middle of the box and crashed in a late fourth for the visitors.

Analysis: No reason to be downcast despite heavy loss

This was always likely to be a step too far for Motherwell. However, a valiant effort until the red card is a strong foundation to build on in the still very early days of Alfred Johansson's time at the club.

Their manager asked for bravery, and taking into account the level of opposition they were facing, he got that from his players.

In nine games so far this campaign, they have only lost twice in 90 minutes - both against the Europa League finalists of last season who brought in roughly €85m (£72.8m) worth of transfer fees this summer alone.

After the heroics of last season, fans were hesitant to dream of a similar year under Johansson, but on the evidence of a good chunk of this, they are right to aim high again.

What they said

Johansson on Motherwell's Conference League exit

Motherwell manager Alfred Johansson: "I think we competed really, really well for 60 minutes and after that obviously it becomes much more difficult once again and there it's about trying to protect as much as you can.

"Could we have done that a little bit better? Maybe in some decisive actions in our own box but I think the guys they tried everything that they had so all in all it was good for 60 minutes and then it was tough."

What's next?

Motherwell travel to St Mirren on Sunday in the Scottish Premiership (15:00 BST).

Player of the match

E. Longelo
8.13
29 P. Treu
4.00
30 C. Günter
3.83
28 M. Ginter
3.67
31 I. Matanović
3.67
42 K. Goto
3.67
43 B. Ogbus
3.57
37 M. Rosenfelder
3.50
8 M. Eggestein
3.50
14 Y. Suzuki
3.50
22 C. Irié
3.50
3 P. Lienhart
3.33
1 M. Backhaus
3.29
16 Y. Engelhardt
3.17
7 D. Scherhant
3.17
32 V. Grifo
3.17
9 L. Höler
2.50
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