AWhen the final whistle sounded in the Munich Arena, Thomas Tuchel stood motionless on the sidelines. The FC Bayern coach slowly got in motion to do what was right at such a moment: to congratulate his opponent Christian Streich. SC Freiburg messed up Tuchel and his new team’s chance of winning the DFB Cup.
With a last-minute goal from Lucas Höler via hand penalty, the Breisgau team defeated FC Bayern 2-1 in the quarter-finals of the DFB Cup on Tuesday evening and can now hope to reach the final like last year. The Munich team, on the other hand, who offered a mediocre performance, can no longer get the triple they were aiming for. However, they can take their revenge on Saturday when the two teams meet again in the Bundesliga, this time in Freiburg.
Before his second competitive game as Bayern coach, Tuchel had announced that he would not rotate much in order to satisfy all the players in the squad. “It doesn’t make sense for the situation,” he said. That’s why he only changed the team in one position compared to the game against Borussia Dortmund: Joao Cancelo replaced Alphonso Davies as left-back in the back four.
Some inaccuracies
Freiburg interfered early and tightened up the midfield to prevent Munich from building up the game. And unlike Dortmund on Saturday, they didn’t let themselves be thrown off course by a goal they conceded. However, this did not result from an individual error like FC Bayern’s lead in the Bundesliga summit, but the 1-0 came from a standard situation.
After 18 minutes, Munich managed to play a long ball over the defense into the penalty area for the first time, Freiburg could only clear at the expense of a corner kick. Joshua Kimmich kicked him in the middle, where Dayot Upamecano jumped the highest and scored the 1-0 with a header (19th). Most of the spectators in the stadium and all the Freiburg players saw that the French defender supported himself a bit with Maximilian Eggestein, just not the referee Harm Osmers and the video assistant in the Cologne basement.
Probably with a portion of anger in the stomach, the sports club oriented itself forward. The Bavarians let their opponents do too much on the offensive, allowed themselves a few inaccuracies on the ball and got the acknowledgment in the 27th minute. A wonderful shot from a good 20 meters by Nicolas Höfler landed in the net for goalkeeper Yann Sommer to make it 1-1.
Bayern dominated the final stages of the first half, but were a little too careless with the opportunities and space offered by the visitors from Breisgau. Once they failed because of goalkeeper Mark Flekken (Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting), once because of Matthias Ginter’s leg (Thomas Müller).
In the second half it looked as if Freiburg would not be able to withstand the pressure from Bayern, but the attacks lacked precision. The game rippled towards extra time – and then came the third minute of stoppage time. After a foul by Sadio Mané in midfield, Freiburg hit the free kick into the penalty area, where the ball bounced over Jamal Musiala’s outstretched arm. Lucas Höler turned the due penalty kick into a winning goal.