Freiburg Beat Celta Vigo 3-0 to Take Control of Europa League Tie

Freiburg extended their strong home run in the UEFA Europa League to 10 straight wins with a comfortable 3-0 victory over Celta Vigo at the Europa-Park Stadion. The result gives them a strong grip on the quarter-final ahead of next week’s second leg.

After making history by reaching the quarter-finals of a European competition for the first time with a 5-2 aggregate win over Genk, Freiburg nearly pulled off a big result against Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich at the weekend, but conceded twice in stoppage time and lost 3-2. They looked eager to recover from that late disappointment and controlled much of the first half against Celta Vigo.

Igor Matanovic had the first chance of the game, but his header went over the bar inside two minutes. Soon after, Maximilian Eggestein hit a strong shot, but Ionut Radu made a good save to hold it.

By the 10th minute, though, Freiburg had already taken the lead through their star player. Vincenzo Grifo, who recently became the club’s all-time top scorer, added another goal to his name by curling a shot from outside the box into the bottom corner.

Celta kept a lot of the ball in response, but they couldn’t really create anything dangerous, and Freiburg made them pay for it just after the half-hour mark. Matanovic got through on goal after a pass from Philipp Treu and, even though he was at a tight angle, instead of shooting he cut the ball back for Jan-Niklas Beste, who finished from close range.

Freiburg could have gone into half-time with an even bigger lead, but Johan Manzambi’s shot was only inches away as it hit the post. After the break, Freiburg still looked more threatening, but they couldn’t create clear chances like before. Grifo tried a low shot from range, but Radu saved it easily.

Freiburg then came back with a sharp strike, courtesy of Matthias Ginter who netted the ball in the 78th minute. After that, Freiburg tightened their defenses and finished the match with a commanding score line of 3-0.