SC Freiburg remain proud of their 7th place finish in the 2025/26 Europa League group phase despite an aggravating last-minute loss against Lille. The Bundesliga UEL representatives missed out on a chance to finish as high as third place by not winning their final group stage encounter. Even a draw against Lille would have left them finishing fourth in the UEL table.
Freiburg narrowly lost 1-0 to Lille away. After missing some great chances to take the lead, a Maximilian Eggestein red card left Freiburg reduced to ten-men with 16 minutes remaining. As the match entered second half injury time, Freiburg were still on course to go undefeated throughout their seven group stage fixtures until substitute Cyriaque Irié felled Matias Fernandez-Pardo in the box at 90+1.
An Oliver Giroud penalty conversion at 90+2 ended Freiburg’s UEL run.
Noah Atubolu still pleased
“I’m extremely annoyed about the penalty,” SCF keeper Noah Atubolu told RTL Radio afterwards. “I knew what he [Giroud] was going to do, but still didn’t save it. Despite all of that, we’re in 7th place and can be proud of ourselves.”
Matthias Ginter questions relevance of table
“Who knows what’s better for us?” SCF defender Matthias Ginter remarked in an interview outside the SCF locker room. “If we finished in 4th place, there would have also been disadvantages.“
Freiburg head coach gets defensive
“[The group phase] was a big success for us,” SCF head coach Julian Schuster – who is fond of telling journalists what sort of headlines to write – said in his own interview. “That should outweigh tonight’s result.
“I don’t want to read [headlines about] ‘Home-field advantage lost’ or something like that,” Schuster continued. “Cancel that shit right now.“
