The team were largely shielded from the activity surrounding this final friendly before next weekend’s DFB-Pokal first-round tie. As the supporters enjoyed a fan festival and stadium entertainment, the players’ focus was firmly on the Spanish top-flight side. Following the annual team presentation just over an hour before kick-off, attention turned to the pitch.

With the Badnerlied and fan anthem ‘SC Freiburg vor’ ringing around the Europa-Park Stadion, the atmosphere was close to that of a league game. On this summer afternoon, 30,000 supporters turned out to see the team and the new signings in action for the first time this season.

“It’s great to have conditions that are so similar to a competitive match, and it’s a fantastic sign that so many fans want to see and support the team again,” commented Julian Schuster.

Kübler and Atubolu to the rescue

New signing Philipp Treu and Max Rosenfelder missed out through injury, while Ritsu Doan and Florent Muslija had departed for Frankfurt and Düsseldorf earlier in the week. Igor Matanovic led the line as the only new signing in the starting XI. Before he had even touched the ball, Lukas Kübler was called into action to make an important clearance in the box after a dangerous Osasuna ball into the area.

The visitors, who were also playing their final warm-up game before La Liga begins next weekend – and had only won one of their five pre-season matches to date – pressed high early on but created little in the opening quarter of an hour. Freiburg’s first promising move came down the right as Eren Dinkci was played in and delivereda pinpoint cross to Vincenzo Grifo, whose header lacked the power to trouble the goalkeeper (19’).

Two minutes later, the danger was back in front of Noah Atubolu’s goal, the keeper saving superbly with his foot to keep the scores level. Schuster made good use of the subsequent drinks break to reorganise his team.

Dinkci – Höler – Matanovic – goal

The SC crosses were starting to cause problems – sometimes from Dinkci on the right, sometimes from Christian Günter on the left. After a Günter delivery was cleared only as far as Kübler, the right-back met it with a clean volley from 20 metres, but goalkeeper Sergio Herrera was equal to it. Osasuna were quick into challenges, yet Freiburg broke them down in the 44th minute with a long ball to Dinkci, who drove in from the left and pulled it across to Lucas Höler. The striker laid it off for Matanovic to force home from close range for 1-0.

Neither coach made changes during the first interval. Seven minutes into the second period, Moi Gómez’s deflected shot found the net, but the goal was disallowed for offside and obstruction of Atubolu’s view by Ante Budimir.

Five changes after 70 minutes

Gómez remained the visitors’ liveliest player, and it was his run in behind that led to the equaliser. The right midfielder squared to substitute Raúl García, who teed up Aimar Oroz for a shot from 17 metres. A deflection wrong-footed Atubolu and it became 1-1 (70’).

The Freiburg coaching staff had already planned changes for the 70-minute mark, and five substitutions followed the goal. The match stayed even, but Osasuna’s corner count began to tell. Their eighth of the game brought their second goal – Alejandro Catena headed the ball back into the danger area after the initial clearance, and García got the better of Jordy Makengo to finish from close range. Freiburg almost hit back immediately through Niklas Beste’s curling effort (88’) and a Philipp Lienhart header (90+1’).

Adamu strikes from the spot

Before the final third began, the remaining starters made way, while Osasuna made 10 changes, including new goalkeeper Aitor Fernández. The substitute keeper denied Beste with a superb save after the winger was set up by Derry Scherhant, and Junior Adamu hit the bar with a header from a Scherhant corner (124’).

SC refused to end pre-season with a defeat. In the 131st minute, Johan Manzambi drove into the box from the left and was brought down by Mauro Echegoyen. Adamu stepped up and confidently placed the penalty low into the left corner to make it 2-2, rounding off the 135-minute contest. “It was a very demanding game against opponents who asked a lot of us,” said Schuster afterwards. “Defensively, it took us a while to get into the game. After an intense week of training, we were also missing that bit of freshness. But I prefer a friendly like this to a comfortable win – now we have things to talk about.”

SC Freiburg open their 2025/26 campaign next Saturday (18:00 CEST) away to Sportfreunde Lotte in the DFB-Pokal.

SC's team: Atubolu (90’ Müller) – Kübler (90’ Röhl), Ginter (90’ Schopper), Lienhart (90’ Jung), Günter (70’ Makengo) – Eggestein (90’ Höfler), Osterhage (70’ Manzambi) – Dinkci (70’ Beste; 118’ Irié), Höler (90’ Adamu), Grifo (70’ Scherhant) – Matanovic (70’ Suzuki) 

Goals: 1-0 Matanovic (44'), 1-1 Oroz (70'), 1-2 Garcia (82'), 2-2 Adamu (131', penalty) 

Referee: Matthias Jöllenbeck 

Crowd: 30,000

Photo: Achim Keller