Tiago Tomás shoots VfB Stuttgart to Berlin. The decision in the semi-final of the DFB Cup against SC Freibrug came late in extra time.
Match winner Tiago Tomás kissed the club’s emblem and jumped into the arms of his cheering teammates, the fans in the stands sang “Berlin” with joy: After a show of will, VfB Stuttgart is only one step away from successfully defending their title in the DFB Cup.
Coach Sebastian Hoeneß’s team won a semi-final thriller against SC Freiburg thanks to a late goal from recently substituted Tomás (119th) 2-1 (0-1) after extra time and followed FC Bayern into the final in Berlin. On May 23rd, VfB can celebrate another strong season with a title in the Olympic Stadium.
Deniz Undav (70th) and Tomás, who had just been substituted, turned the hard-fought game around for Stuttgart, who are also playing in the league for direct entry into the Champions League. Freiburg, which had taken the lead through Maximilian Eggestein (28th), missed the first of two chances for the title.
Nagelsmann sees heated cup semi-finals
In the coming weeks (April 30th and May 7th) the sports club will play against Sporting Braga for a final ticket in the Europa League.
Bayern reached the final in Berlin for the first time since 2020 with a 2-0 win at Bayer Leverkusen on Wednesday and will now face VfB in the cup final for the third time. The Munich team secured the title in both 1986 and 2013.
In Stuttgart, the longing for Berlin was huge again, less than a year after the celebrated triumph against Arminia Bielefeld. The team “tasted blood,” emphasized Hoeneß: “Lifting the trophy into the air was fantastic. We want to have that again.” But Freiburg was also longing for the final. They want to “take the flow” of the past few weeks with them, said Vincenzo Grifo.
A heated game developed in front of national coach Julian Nagelsmann. After just a quarter of an hour, referee Tobias Welz had shown four yellow cards, meaning there was hardly any flow in the game. Eggestein (17th) recorded the only dangerous shot in the early stages, the subsequent calls for a penalty were in vain.
Tomas creates last minute madness
But be that as it may: Only around ten minutes later the sports club was able to celebrate when Eggestein extended a header from Matthias Ginter into the goal from close range. VfB only had chances shortly before half-time, but then pushed vehemently for an equalizer. Ermedin Demirovic (40th), Jamie Leweling (44th) and Undav (45th + 3) narrowly failed.
Nevertheless, VfB remained active even after the break. Chris Führich (49th) missed the next good chance, and after an hour SC goalkeeper Florian Müller, who, as was usual in the cup recently, replaced the regular goalkeeper Noah Atubolu, who was probably willing to leave, had to intervene. The former Stuttgart player recorded Angelo Stiller’s finish on the line.
On the other side, Yuito Suzuki missed the decision, Undav scored in direct return. A deflected shot from the national striker landed on the post a little later (82′). Müller saved Freiburg against Führich (90+2) and Undav (90+4) in extra time. It was Führich (96′) who hit the post, and Müller was once again brilliant against El Khannouss (103′). Then Tiago Tomás became the celebrated match winner.