Freiburg Thrash Celta Vigo 3-0, Take Giant Leap Towards Europa League Semi-Finals

Having advanced to the quarter-finals of a UEFA competition for the first time in their history with a 5-2 aggregate win over Genk in the previous round, Freiburg narrowly lost to Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich at the weekend, conceding twice in injury time to end up 3-2 down. Eager to atone for that late slip-up, Freiburg dominated their Spanish rivals for much of the first half.

Igor Matanovic was first to threaten, heading over the bar within two minutes, while Maximilian Eggestein’s powerful shot was well handled by Ionut Radu.

However, it took just 10 minutes for the Breisgau Brazilians to take the lead, courtesy of their talisman. Vincenzo Grifo, recently crowned the club’s all-time top scorer, curled the ball into the bottom corner from outside the box to make his mark once again.

Celta Vigo had plenty of possession in response but created very little, and the hosts capitalised on their lack of threat shortly after the half-hour mark. Matanovic had the option to shoot when Philipp Treu played him through from a tight angle but displayed great awareness by squaring the ball for Jan-Niklas Beste, who tapped it in from close range.

Freiburg could have extended their lead by half-time if Johan Manzambi’s effort had been a few inches to the left instead of striking the upright.

After the break, Freiburg remained the more threatening side but struggled to create the same quality chances, with Grifo’s low strike from distance easily saved by Radu.

Despite being the highest-scoring team in the competition up until this match, Celta were effectively stifled by Freiburg’s solid defence. They failed to register a single shot on target throughout the 90 minutes, their closest attempt being Fer Lopez’s first-time effort, which narrowly missed the post.

Freiburg sealed their victory with just under 15 minutes left to play, as Matthias Ginter headed in from a corner.

With this result, they are on course to reach a second semi-final this season, having already secured a spot in the last four of the DFB Pokal.

Celta, on the other hand, faced their first away defeat in nine matches across all competitions and will need to significantly up their game in Spain next week if they hope to make it to the UEL semi-finals for only the second time in their history.

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