They had to win, they won. Despite a success against Young Boys Bern, VfB Stuttgart did not make it directly to the round of 16 of the Europa League. SC Freiburg, on the other hand, is luckier.
The obligation to win was fulfilled, but the little football miracle didn’t happen: Despite a 3:2 (2:1) thanks to a last-minute goal in the preliminary round final of the Europa League against Young Boys Bern, VfB Stuttgart has to take the detour via the playoffs. However, the necessary support for the theoretically still possible direct entry into the round of 16 did not materialize. VfB ended up in eleventh place in the final rankings.
The Stuttgart team clearly dominated the game against initially weak guests and, after a furious start, had already scored twice after less than seven minutes. But thanks to the double strike from the offensive duo Deniz Undav (6th minute) and Ermedin Demirovic (7th), the Swabians regained their lead after missed opportunities and negligence in defense.
In the second half it looked like a setback before Andres Chema completed the fourth home win in the fourth appearance in front of his own crowd in this Europa League season in the 90th minute. Armin Gigovic (42nd) and Sandro Lauper (57th) had equalized for Bern.
Draw on Friday
The second round pairings will be drawn on Friday (1 p.m.) at UEFA headquarters in Nyon. Given the format of the competition, only Celtic Glasgow or Ludogorets Razgrad are possible opponents.
Stuttgart had to win for their mini-chance of reaching the round of 16 directly. And after a white-red choreography, the game started promisingly. Central defender Finn Jeltsch won the ball well into the visitors’ half and after a combination on the right, Undav had little trouble pushing the ball over the line from close range.
Bern’s coach Gerardo Seoane, Mönchengladbach’s coach until September, had warned urgently about the instinctive footballer. But he shone in the next action as a preparer for striker Demirovic.
The Stuttgart team didn’t have enough, they continued to put pressure on the struggling sixth-place team in the Swiss league – and had promising opportunities. Not only when Jeltsch’s shot was directed onto the post by YB keeper Marvin Keller, VfB could have increased.
Bredlow helps the opponent with a bad pass
The Swabians had events under control for a long time. But shortly before the break, Gigovic’s connection made things exciting again. Before the goal was conceded, the pass from substitute keeper Fabian Bredlow, who was surprisingly included in the starting line-up, landed at the opponent. Although VfB coach Hoeneß had announced that he wanted to take the game seriously, he still gave the national goalkeeper Alexander Nübel, who had made strong saves, an evening to breathe.
After the break, the Swiss, who had to do without their supporters due to a UEFA sanction, achieved an equalizer that was hardly thought possible in the first half. During a corner kick, Stuttgart missed Lauper on the edge of the penalty area, who volleyed the ball into the goal to equalize. Bredlow later even had to save his team from falling behind before Chema scored the winning goal in the last minute. But it wasn’t enough to advance directly.
Freiburg is luckier
Despite a defeat, SC Freiburg moves straight into the round of 16 of the Europa League without going through the intermediate round. At the end of the league phase, coach Julian Schuster’s team lost 0-1 (0-0) at OSC Lille. The result was still enough to maintain a place among the top eight teams. A penalty from Olivier Giroud (90+2) sealed the late defeat.
“We are SC Freiburg, we are in seventh place, we can be completely proud of ourselves,” said goalkeeper Noah Atubolu on “RTL+”. Possible opponents in the round of 16 are Brann Bergen, Dinamo Zagreb, FC Bologna and KRC Genk.
Even before kick-off, it was clear that one point would be enough for the Bundesliga club to skip the playoffs and thus gain two weeks off. Given the triple pressure of the league, Europa League and DFB Cup, it was understandable that the guests chose a defensive approach.
However, this was so defensive that they remained completely harmless throughout the entire game. But Lille didn’t act much more forcefully out of the game – despite having the majority in the final phase after the red card for Maximilian Eggestein (74th). Due to the results of the competition, the defeat had no consequences.
Lille is still winless this calendar year
The poor northern French team went into the encounter against the seventh-place team in the Bundesliga with five competitive defeats in a row. Nevertheless, Schuster had warned against the hosts – especially against former world champion and veteran Giroud.
“You can’t just look at the results, but also the games,” said the coach, referring, among other things, to the 3-0 loss to Champions League winners Paris Saint-Germain. “They also got into the game well against PSG. I would rate it as the most difficult task for us in the league phase.”
The 40-year-old turned out to be right with his assumption, even though the actual target player, Giroud, was not in the starting line-up. Lille relied on fast, agile attackers and posed a threat at times. Freiburg, on the other hand, stood deep and didn’t come up with a single offensive action in the first half. However, SC goalkeeper Noah Atubolu wasn’t really challenged either.
Game more open after the restart
“If you don’t do that well with the ball, then you have to at least defend it to the end,” said sports director Jochen Saier, who hoped for an improvement in an interview on RTL+ during the half-time break: “One would hope that we would get a little better with the ball.”
The Freiburg team followed their words with actions, at least for a short time: Shortly after the restart, however, Junior Adamu initially lacked the speed of action (51.). Shortly before his substitution, he completely missed the ball in front of the Lille goal (57′). On the other side, Matias Fernandez-Pardo failed alone in front of Atubolu, who couldn’t be outwitted by a lob (64′).
The game was now a little more fast-paced. Atubolu had more to do until the final whistle, but even after Eggestein’s dismissal, the Lille attackers were only able to overcome Giroud’s penalty in stoppage time.
dpa/seed
