In the Europa League, SC Freiburg drew against Olympiakos Piraeus. Lukas Kübler scored the late equalizer for the sports club, which qualified early for the round of 16.
For a long time it looked like the first Freiburg defeat in the Europa League. But after an increase in performance in the second half, Lukas Kübler scored the equalizer in injury time to make it 1-1 against Olympiacos Piraeus. Youssef El-Arabi gave the visitors the lead in the 17th minute. After four wins and a draw, the sports club is early in the round of 16. With Nantes beating Qarabag 2-1 in the second game of Group G, Freiburg would have reached the round of 16 even if they lost to Piraeus.
Freiburg falls behind against Piraeus early on
The Greek record champions started aggressively and came to an end in the first action. But Georgios Masouras’ shot went well over the goal. It took Freiburg a few minutes to get into the game. When Christian Streich’s team then built up more and more pressure after around 15 minutes, the visitors suddenly took the lead: Masouras came down the right flank and played the ball low into the middle to Pep Biel. SC keeper Mark Flekken was able to parry his shot from the back, but El-Arabi lurked in the penalty area and took the lead to a 1-0 lead (17th minute).
Sport club with a weak first half
Just seven minutes later, the Breisgauers were lucky that Piraeus didn’t make it 2-0: Masouras only hit the side netting after a well-played counterattack from a tight angle. As a result, the Freiburg made the Olympiacos defeated Piraeus 3-0 in the first legthen more for the game, but in the forward movement the sports club lacked the train to the goal.
Only after 35 minutes did the Bundesliga third come dangerously in front of the opposing goal in the sold-out Europa-Park stadium. But Kyereh missed Grifo’s sharp cross by inches. So it remained until half-time with the narrow but deserved deficit of Freiburg.
Freiburg stronger after changing sides
After the break, Christian Streich sent his team back onto the field unchanged. Freiburg now tried to build up more offensive pressure and scored twice with Nicolas Höfler (58′) and Kübler (59′). But the guests continued to play forward. It was a balanced game with penalty situations on both sides.
SC coach Streich tried to breathe new life into the team with a triple change: In the 63rd minute, Maximilian Eggestein, Woo-yeong Jeong and Noah Weißhaupt came on for Yannik Keitel, Daniel-Kofi Kyereh and Ritsu Doan. A few minutes later Nils Petersen came along and had the chance to equalize after a good pass from Weißhaupt (76′). But Petersen’s direct acceptance was centered on goal and Piraeus’ keeper Alexandros Paschalakis saved.
Piraeus withstood the pressure of Freiburg for a long time
In the final quarter of an hour it was almost only the hosts who threw everything forward in order to still score a goal. But goalkeeper Paschalakis became player of the match with save after save. Only in the third minute of stoppage time could he no longer withstand the Freiburg offensive pressure and Kübler headed in after a corner from Christian Günter to equalize 1-1. After four wins and a draw, the Breisgauer are early in the round of 16 of the Europa League.