Fantastic Freiburg thump Celta Vigo to reach Europa League semi-final

SC Freiburg are through to their first European semi-final after a dominant display over two legs against Celta Vigo.

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SC Freiburg secured their place in the Europa League semi-final after beating Celta de Vigo 6-1 on aggregate. The Bundesliga representatives will now wait for the winners of Braga and Real Betis.

Despite the great atmosphere inside the stadium, the first half-hour was uneventful in both boxes. That suited Julian Schuster’s team rather well, with their three-goal advantage from the first leg last week still intact in the tie.

And they pretty much finished the job by scoring from their first two shots on target in the next ten minutes. Igor Matanović opened the scoring with a dream goal from outside the box, which needed a VAR check to be cleared from a potential offside in the buildup.

A long ball to Jordy Makengo initiated the first goal, and Philipp Lienhart winning the ball high up the pitch created the second. Yuito Suzuki doubled Freiburg’s advantage after a swift one-two with Jan-Niklas Beste. The slight deflection by the vastly experienced Marcos Alonso made it even more difficult for Ionuț Radu to save the Japanese midfielder’s effort.

In a dream night for Freiburg and Suzuki, the visitors extended their advantage early after the restart. Before the four half-time substitutes by Claudio Giráldez settled in the game, the in-form attacker made it 6-0 on aggregate.

Sergio Carreira denied Johan Manzambi on the goalline after a superb run down the right flank by the Swiss midfielder, but Vincenzo Grifo set up Suzuki’s simple finish from the follow-up.

Noah Atubolu made a few decent saves after that, but he was denied another clean sheet following an injury-time strike by Williot Swedberg. After scoring from each of their three big chances, Freiburg managed to see out the result to secure their place in the last four.

With Germany and Spain fighting for an extra Champions League spot, Freiburg winning both legs against a LaLiga side secured a big advantage for Bundesliga. Following a home Bundesliga game against bottom-placed Heidenheim, Freiburg will face neighbours Stuttgart in the Pokal semis.