VfB Stuttgart has to take a setback. The team lost 2-0 to AS Roma, which put their qualification for the round of 16 in the Europa League in jeopardy. On the other hand, SC Freiburg has the best chance of progressing after a win against Maccabi Tel Aviv.
VfB Stuttgart is in danger of missing out on direct qualification for the round of 16 in the Europa League. With the 0:2 (0:1) in the difficult away task at AS Roma, the DFB Cup winners suffered a setback. The minimum goal of taking four points from the last two league phase games of the competition was out of reach.
Niccolò Pisilli (40th minute/90th+3) decided the game in the Italian capital in favor of the Romans with his two goals. After the third defeat in the seventh game, VfB remains outside the top eight before the preliminary round final next Thursday at home against the Swiss club Young Boys Bern. This means that the Swabian Bundesliga team would have to survive two intermediate round games in order to make it into the top 16.
For coach Sebastian Hoeneß’s Swabians, it was their first defeat in 2026 after a successful start to the new year in the Bundesliga with seven points from three games.
Even without Angelo Stiller, the Stuttgart team dominated the early stages of the duel between the fourth-placed team in the Bundesliga and the fourth-placed team in Serie A. The Swabians remained harmless against the dense defense. A shot from Jamie Leweling was the best chance in the first half (33′).
Stiller not fit in time
Due to injury, Hoeneß had to do without top performer Stiller. The midfielder was missing from the squad due to his groin problem. He was replaced in the starting line-up by the young Chema Andrés, who had barely featured recently.
“Of course the hurdle is extremely high today,” said sports director Fabian Wohlgemuth shortly before kick-off on RTL, but said hopefully: “I think on a good day there is more to it than a draw.”
But after almost 20 minutes the hosts got into the game better. However, VfB seemed to still have the game under control, but then fell behind. When a pass went deep, the gap in the defensive line was too big. Pisilli sank the ball – deflected by VfB keeper Alexander Nübel – under the crossbar. Nübel then had to save his team from losing 2-0.
Undav misses the equalizer
After the break, national striker Deniz Undav could have made more of his chance. A free kick from Chris Führich got stuck. The rebound landed at Undav, who hit the ball well over the goal (58th). The Swabians continued to struggle to find gaps in front of around 4,000 VfB fans who had traveled with them.
“Roma is one of the best teams in the Europa League, they play maturely and maturely, and they are also very ripped off,” Hoeneß had warned. And his team couldn’t take the point they had hoped for – also because substitute Ermedin Demirovic failed from close range with just under a quarter of an hour to go.
SC Freiburg can look back on a much more positive evening. Accompanied by strict security measures and a fan boycott, the club made the round of 16 of the Europa League almost perfect. The Bundesliga club defeated Israel’s record champions Maccabi Tel Aviv 1-0 (0-0) with a late goal from Igor Matanovic (82nd minute).
The Freiburg team remained unbeaten in the seventh game of the competition in front of 27,600 spectators and celebrated their fourth win in their fourth home game. Maccabi, who have only picked up one point, can no longer reach the play-off round in February.
Because FC Porto equalized at Viktoria Pilsen in the 90th minute, the sports club can still be pushed out of one of the top eight places in purely mathematical terms. At the end of the league phase, next week we go to OSC Lille in France.
In order to prevent possible anti-Semitic riots, the strictest security precautions were taken – as was the case during Maccabi’s guest appearance at VfB Stuttgart in December. The police were on duty around the game with more than 2,000 officers, and entry controls led to long queues. Several Freiburg ultra groups stayed away because they felt their fan culture freedom was restricted. Many other seats remained empty, which certainly had an impact on the atmosphere in the stadium.
Things were also quite quiet on the pitch at first – before the SC had their first big chance out of nowhere. The guests were unable to clear a long shot from defender Max Rosenfelder, the ball landed at Matanovic, but the attacker’s shot was too harmless (17th).
Freiburg triple chance after the break
In other respects, the in-form Matanovic was the most noticeable player for the Freiburg team, who were now dominating more and more. However, they were rarely really dangerous. A pattern that is already familiar to the Breisgauers from this season. In injury time of the first half, the SC was even lucky that goalkeeper Noah Atubolu prevented Saied Abu Farchi from making it 0-1 with a header.
Things got really turbulent in Maccabi’s penalty area ten minutes after the break. Freiburg’s Matthias Ginter failed after a corner from goalkeeper Roi Mishpati, Matanovic only hit the crossbar in the follow-up, and Yuito Suzuki missed the third attempt. It’s hard to believe that the Baden team didn’t put the ball in the goal. At least they now noticeably increased the number of hits.
Winger Derry Scherhant first shot the ball past (59th), then failed after a combination with Matanovic from a few meters (68th) and finally shot the ball directly into the arms of goalkeeper Mishpati (76th). In the final phase, Freiburg were rewarded for their effort: Captain Christian Günter crossed from the left and Matanovic made the decision with a wonderful header.
dpa/luwi/doli
