“It was an incredibly hard-fought match with lots of power out there on the pitch. Bochum play with so much energy and we were able to deal with that well. We were the lucky side today – it was the other way around a few weeks ago. It was a brilliant match and every single player gave it their all,” was Christian Streich’s summary shortly after the final whistle had confirmed his side’s place in the final four of the cup.

There was just the one change to the side that started in the 3-0 win over Hertha BSC, with Roland Sallai dropping to the bench and Kevin Schade coming in.

The hosts brought in four new faces compared to their narrow home loss to Leipzig on the weekend, with Eduard Löwen, Sebastian Polter, Milos Pantovic and Danilo Soares replaced by Patrick Osterhage, Konstantinos Stafylidis, Gerrit Holtmann and Jürgen Locadia.

Away days are fairly common for SCF in the DFB-Pokal, but a quarterfinal tie is a much rarer occurrence, with the last one resulting in a 1-0 defeat to VfL Wolfsburg in 2014/15. 10,000 fans – including 1,000 Freiburg supporters – were inside the floodlit Vonovia Ruhrstadion to watch the battle for the final spot in this season’s semi-finals.

High intensity in the first half

It was clear from the off that Bochum would be relying on their typical direct play against SCF. A throw-in on the halfway line was quickly sent forward towards Takuma Asano. His delivery to the back post managed to find Gerrit Holtmann, but his header wasn’t precise enough (5’).

The first warning shot from Freiburg game via Christian Günter, who had swapped places with Nils Petersen to receive the forward’s cross from the left flank (8’). It was an even opening period of the game, with both teams prone to mistakes in their build-up play, albeit without allowing chances for the opposition to capitalise.

While the football had room for improvement, the match certainly wasn’t lacking any fire, with the loud support roaring the players into every crunching challenge. Philipp Lienhart and Jürgen Locadio in particular were keen to get stuck in, sometimes cleanly, sometimes less so.

The first genuine moment of danger in Bochum’s penalty area came in the 27th minute, when both Petersen and Maximilian Eggestein marginally missed getting something on the end of Lukas Kübler’s cross in the middle, while Vincenzo Grifo was too late to react at the far post.

Freiburg’s best opportunity of the first half fell to Petersen, who was sent in behind with a through ball, although there was still a long way to the Bochum goal. With a defender breathing down his neck, he perhaps rushed his shot from a good 20 yards, and it failed to pose a significant problem for VfL goalkeeper Manuel Riemann (37’).

There was one final moment of drama before the referee called an end to a goalless half, with Locadio grabbing Lienhart around the neck during a Bochum corner and shoving him to the ground (44’). Despite Freiburg protests, the referee didn’t look at VAR – a no doubt lucky escape for the VfL striker, who was subsequently subbed off by his coach.

Petersen strikes, Polter equalises

Freiburg were the better of the two sides early in the second half and took the lead five minutes after the restart. Lukas Kübler headed down to Kevin Schade on the edge of the area, and although his effort was saved by Manuel Riemann, the ball kindly landed at the feet of Nils Petersen, who had the simple task of turning home into the open goal.

In response to Petersen’s 99th competitive goal for SC Freiburg, Thomas Reis’ side looked to attack more but saw their efforts nullified by an alert Freiburg defence. With Streich’s charges also trying to build on their lead, the game reached another level on intensity.

The home team took advantage of a rare Freiburg lapse to equalise on 65 minutes. Elvis Rexhbecaj picked up the ball in midfield and found space, driving forward before crossing into the box where substitute Sebastian Polter got free of Philipp Lienhart to head in the leveller.

Streich reacted with a triple change, introducing Lucas Höler, Roland Sallai and Ermedin Demirovic for the remaining 20 minutes of regular time. With a few players tiring in the final stages, it was Demirovic who had the final chance to score within the 90 minutes, but he failed to find the target.

Sallai goal books semi-final ticket

As with the tie against VfL Osnabrück, extra time was required if SC Freiburg’s cup journey was to continue. With the game level, the best chances fell to the opposition; Bochum were denied taking the lead twice, firstly by Flekken (99’), then by the woodwork (102’). At the other end, Christian Günter’s deflected shot landed on the roof of the net (108’).

With nothing between the two sides as the clock ticked on, both sets of fans began to prepare for penalties. However, with just seconds remaining, Roland Sallai latched onto an under-hit Bochum back-pass intended for the goalkeeper and raced through on goal, keeping his composure to slot past Riemann and make it 2-1 to SCF. The Freiburg fans went wild in the stands as the final whistle came just moments later, celebrating their side’s courageous performance and progress into the final four of the DFB-Pokal.

Photo: Bernd Thissen