After being eliminated from the DFB Cup, SC Freiburg is also threatened with a semi-final knockout in the Europa League. The Breisgauers unfortunately lost the first leg at Sporting Braga 1:2 (1:1) and go into the second leg on Thursday (9 p.m., RTL) in Freiburg with a mortgage. The SC has won all European Cup home games in the current season. In any case, a club from the English Premier League awaits in the final on May 20th in Istanbul. Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa make up the second participant. With Eintracht Frankfurt, only one German team has been able to win the successor competition to the UEFA Cup.
Mario Dorgeles scored the winning goal for the hosts in the second minute of added time. All the more bitter, especially since Freiburg had largely had the game under control until then. However, the game started very poorly from SC’s perspective: the Bundesliga club fell behind in the 8th minute due to Demir Tiknaz. Freiburg then quickly came back through Vincenzo Grifo (16th) and was able to thank Noah Atubolu before the break. The controversial penalty after a foul by Freiburg defender Philipp Lienhart came out of nowhere. Freiburg’s goalkeeper Atubolu saved against former Bundesliga professional Rodrigo Zalazar (45th + 2).
Despite the support of around 2,000 traveling fans, the sports club made a relatively large number of mistakes in the passing game and only rarely managed to set an accent. Atubolu was hardly tested after conceding an early goal. However, when the focus was on the 23-year-old, the keeper was there and saved the penalty against Rodrigo Zalazar shortly before the break. Even after the restart, both teams struggled. The opening of the game was repeatedly prevented, and the final consequence was always missing. Freiburg’s Eggestein missed the best chance after just over an hour. Then everything pointed to a draw. Then Braga scored.