SC Freiburg stage stunning comeback to reach Europa League quarter-finals

SC Freiburg reached the quarter-finals of a European competition for the first time after overturning a first-leg deficit, beating KRC Genk 5–1 in the Europa League second leg to win 5–2 on aggregate. Matthias Ginter, Igor Matanovic, Vincenzo Grifo — who became Freiburg’s all-time leading goalscorer with his 106th competitive goal in a Freiburg shirt — Yuito Suzuki and Maximilian Eggestein supplied the goals.

Matte Smets had briefly brought Genk back into the tie, but Freiburg refused to let their quarter-final ticket slip away. Coach Julian Schuster had said "We are confident we can make up the deficit" before the match. Afterward he told RTL: "You always get that feeling as the week goes on.

You could just tell with the lads – they were fully committed. We’re very, very happy and very, very proud of what we’ve achieved and that we get to continue travelling with all our fantastic fans." Eggestein, back in the starting line-up after serving his red card suspension, helped drive the comeback.

sc freiburg, krc genk, europa league, quarter-finals, comeback, matthias ginter, igor matanovic, vincenzo grifo, yuito suzuki, maximilian eggestein