Freiburg staying the course in extraordinary season
Along with runaway Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munch, Freiburg are the only German team still competing on three fronts at the business end of 2025/26.
Increasingly accustomed to fairy-tale runs befitting their Black Forest home, Freiburg are once again in the mix for European qualification via their Bundesliga standings. The top-six sides as a minimum will punch a ticket to continental competition - but Julian Schuster's team might not need one.
That's because Die Breisgauer are through to the UEFA Europa League semi-finals, where Portugal's Braga await, and have a DFB Cup semi-final against holders VfB Stuttgart ahead too. Silverware in either of those would secure the amiable Badem-Württemberg outfit a fourth continental campaign in six years - potentially a first in the UEFA Champions League.
Freiburg are also in rude health off the pitch. Membership in the club has doubled in the space of just eight years to 80,000; they're sixth among Bundesliga clubs for television revenue distribution; and their Europa-Park stadium, which opened in 2021, is leading the way for sustainability with its climate-neutral capabilities.
For some, it's all a natural progression for a team that has finished fifth in the Bundesliga twice in the last three seasons - but it's easy to forget they were also playing Bundesliga 2 football as recently as 2015/16. Even though they bounced back at the first time of asking under legendary former coach Christian Streich, few would have expected them to perform so consistently upon their return, with only three botton-half finishes over the last nine years.
Watch: Christian Streich - a Freiburg great
Freiburg's performances this season are even more impressive, after 12 era-defining years of Streich.
Former Freiburg player Schuster lost his first two Bundesliga games as head coach, but his team currently sit seventh in the Bundesliga, with four rounds of fixtures remaining.
Progress to the cup semis for the third time in five years was relatively smooth, until the penalty shoutout win over Bundesliga 2's Hertha Berlin in the previous round. And that same fighting spirit was scarcely more pronounced as Vincenzo Grifo & Co. overturned a 1-0 first-leg deficit to thump Belgium's Genk 5-1 on aggregate in the Europa League round of 16 - before their comfortable 6-1 progression on aggregate against Celta Vigo in the quarter-finals.
Although Grifo's second-leg goal against Genk made him Freiburg's all-time leading goalscorer, and he opened the scoring in the first leg against Vigo, no single player has taken centre stage in the incredible European run. Like so much of the team's successes in recent years, it has been built on collective spirit, with Niklas Beste scoring only his second goal for the club in the Vigo first leg and new signing Yuito Suzuki netting a brace in the second.
Freiburg are now in pursuit of the club's first major trophy. Schuster's band of brothers are in the role of underdogs in both cup competitions - just as they were on their way to the 2021/22 DFB Cup final - but not a single opposition team will take them lightly.
