Tiago Tomas with a backheel in the 119th minute sends Stuttgart into another DFB-Pokal final
Stuttgart had done everything a defending cup holder is supposed to do at home, except score. Freiburg led at the MHPArena for most of the night through Maximilian Eggestein's 28th-minute header, and the visitors looked set to knock out the holders until Deniz Undav forced his way level in the 70th minute. Then, almost at the death of extra time, the tie went off-script.
A minute after coming off the bench, Badredine Bouanani burst down the right and cut a low ball back across the Freiburg six-yard box. Tomas, on as a substitute himself, flicked it past Noah Atubolu with a backheel. The clock in the corner of the screen read 119 minutes.
A final that was slipping away
This was a semi-final Stuttgart had grown into rather than controlled. Eggestein punished a flat opening half-hour, meeting a set piece cleanly and heading Freiburg into a lead that, for long stretches, did not feel unfair.
Sebastian Hoeness reshuffled on the hour and Undav finally made the breakthrough, but the game drifted into extra time with neither side able to break the other. Freiburg even thought they had snatched a winner of their own, only for the goal to be ruled out after a VAR check.
A Berlin date with Bayern
The reward is a return to the Olympiastadion on May 23 for a final against Bayern Munich. Stuttgart go back to Berlin as cup holders after beating Arminia Bielefeld in last year’s final, and on Thursday night they had to dig themselves out of trouble to get another crack at it.
Bayern, who eased past Bayer Leverkusen 2-0 in Wednesday’s other semi-final thanks to goals from Harry Kane and Luis Diaz, reach the final as strong favourites. It will be a fourth Stuttgart-Bayern meeting of the season, after the Franz Beckenbauer Supercup in August and two Bundesliga games Bayern have already won.
For one night at least, none of that mattered. Stuttgart’s title defence is still alive, Tomas’s backheel is already being picked over in every replay, and the cup final has its last piece in place.
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