Europa League: Freiburg final dream: test of strength in the Felsenstadion

Drama in Stuttgart left its mark

The game in Portugal is the next “highlight game” for Freiburg, as Maximilian Eggestein put it. “All the grains should be back,” said the midfielder. Eggestein is one of the long-running favorites at SC. He missed the first leg of the round of 16 at Belgian representative KRC Genk due to a red card suspension. Otherwise, he has been on the pitch in all of Freiburg’s 47 competitive games so far this season – and always in the starting line-up.

Also in the league away game at Borussia Dortmund (0:4), where the SC picked up its almost traditional slap last Sunday. Freiburg rarely looked good at BVB. This time, marked by the dramatic semi-final exit in the DFB Cup at VfB Stuttgart, but particularly bad. Of course, he noticed that the bitter 1-2 defeat after extra time three days earlier had lasted over 120 minutes, said Eggestein.

Schuster’s indispensable axis

In addition to the high pressure on Freiburg this season, the game in Dortmund also illustrated how important top players Matthias Ginter, Johan Manzambi and Yuito Suzuki are for SC. The trio was missing due to injury. An axis that is difficult to replace for coach Julian Schuster.

Ginter, the defense chief, has been impressing with strong performances for weeks and is fighting with all his might for a place in the German World Cup squad. Manzambi, the Swiss midfield jewel, is the linchpin of Freiburg’s game. Suzuki, the lively Japanese, creates special moments offensively. All three have played an enormous part in the SC’s triumph so far.

Now that the national final dream has been shattered, it is important to keep the international one alive. The Freiburg team have already come this far on the road to Istanbul, where the Europa League final will take place on May 20th. Now they want to go the last few meters and overcome the tricky Braga hurdle.

Matanovic demands “120 percent”

“It’s incredibly intense, the pace we go week after week,” said striker Igor Matanovic before the first leg against the fourth-placed team in the Portuguese league. It is all the more important that every player in the squad is always ready to “give 120 percent,” he said. “We need every single one.”

Only one German team has ever won the successor competition to the UEFA Cup: Eintracht Frankfurt four years ago. Can the Breisgauers follow the Hessians, with whom they are still fighting for seventh place in the Bundesliga? First of all, the show of strength awaits them in Braga’s famous rock stadium.