SC Freiburg is in the second round of the Europa League. After the win against RB Salzburg, the direct route to the round of 16 is also open.
Philipp Lienhart scored the golden goal for SC Freiburg’s 1-0 win in the Europa League against RB Salzburg (50th). It was an unspectacular but extremely important victory. The sports club is now in fifth place in the Europa League with 14 points and can at least plan for the second round with a seven point lead over Dinamo Zagreb. The Breisgauers also have the direct route to the round of 16 in their own hands.
Freiburg quickly got the game under control, attacked Salzburg early and put the Austrians under constant pressure. When they had possession of the ball, coach Julian Schuster’s team was usually able to confidently break free from Salzburg’s pressing and combine favorably. However, it was only rarely possible to convert the playful preponderance into a goal threat. Yuito Suzuki tried from a distance (18th) and Johan Manzambi also tried it (28th). The Breisgauers only had one chance inside the penalty area: Maximilian Eggestein headed the ball after a corner from Vincenzo Grifo (31′). But he also missed the goal, like Suzuki and Manzambi before.
SC Freiburg with more space in the majority
The spaces opened up when Salzburg only played with ten men after a violent elbow strike from Petar Rakov against Maximilian Eggestein (38th). Nevertheless, the guests almost took the lead after a lightning-fast counterattack: Salzburg’s Edmund Baidoo ran away from defender Philipp Lienhart and passed it to Yorbe Vertessen in the five-meter area. However, he missed by a hair’s breadth. Lucky for Freiburg that the score went into the break 0-0.
After the restart, Freiburg increased the pressure, Suzuki (46′) and Manzambi (47′) approached the Salzburg goal again and ultimately scored after a shot from Jan-Niklas Beste, which Lienhart decisively deflected, to give them a deserved 1-0 lead (50′).
Freiburg presses in vain
From then on, Freiburg almost completely took over the game, Salzburg usually tied the ball off in their own third and launched attack after attack. However, the decisive second goal didn’t want to come – the final pass was too often too imprecise to cause any real danger of scoring. Manzambi (75′) and Christian Günter (90’+3) had the best chances of making it 2-0 with their long-range shots. But in both cases, Austria’s national goalkeeper Alexander Schlager was the final stop. So it remained a narrow but deserved success for the Breisgau team.
SC Freiburg still has to compete in the Europa League twice: at the end of January (January 22, 2026, 6:45 p.m.) the penultimate Maccabi Tel Aviv comes to Breisgau. A week later (January 29, 2026, 9 p.m.) the sports club will compete at OSC Lille. Borussia Dortmund will be guests in the Bundesliga on Sunday (live in the audio stream on Sportschau.de from 3:30 p.m.).
