Lucas Höler still had a score to settle with Leipzig. The Freiburg striker said before the game what others might be thinking. Time for reckoning should be on Tuesday evening in the stadium next to the airfield. Instead, the bill has become even bigger. Much bigger. After losing the final in the DFB-Pokal last May, Höler and his teammates now wanted to leave the pitch as winners in the semi-finals. This plan failed miserably. The Sport-Club Freiburg was defeated by furious Leipzig with 1:5 goals. The score was already 0-4 at half-time.

Tobias Rabe

Editor in charge of Sport Online.

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Freiburg could have a score to settle after the defeat, not only on the pitch. When the clear inferiority became apparent, there was an incident in the middle of the second half, which is likely to have an aftermath. The Leipzig reservist André Silva had apparently been hit by a coin in the head while warming up in front of the Freiburg fan curve and had then laid down on the ground. As a result, the emotions boiled over briefly, a few Freiburg fans made the leap into the interior, but were rejected by stewards and sports club players.

Referee Sven Jablonski noted the incident in his report, which goes to the German Football Association (DFB). "We write in what we have perceived," he said on the TV channel at Sky: "The safety of the players comes first at all times. However, abandoning the game is the last resort. We were able to continue because the players were ultimately safe." From then on, Leipzig's substitutes warmed up on the other side; the situation calmed down. "If the players had signaled that they needed an interruption, we would have reacted," Jablonski said.

"I don't lie down there"

Freiburg's captain condemned the behaviour of the few angry fans. It was "not nice that they go down from the fence, it doesn't have to be," said Christian Günter: "That also makes a bit of fear when it comes to violence," even if "nothing major has happened." However, he also criticized Silva: "I don't lie down there. I got five lighters in the back last week at Schalke during a corner kick," he told Sky: "If it's not a laceration or anything, I'll take the thing, throw it to the side, then it's done, then the emotions don't boil up that much."

An outside Freiburg official was more explicit. "It's shitty and has no place in the stadium. We can only apologise for that," said sporting director Jochen Saier. Coach Marco Rose spoke to Leipzig. "This is an incident that must not happen," he said, "but you often have two or three idiots in the stadium." In general, he had perceived a "very hot atmosphere". This will certainly not be any different in the Bundesliga duel, for which the teams will meet again on Saturday (15.30 CET in the F.A.Z. live ticker for the Bundesliga and on Sky).

Until then, the Freiburg players will have to recover. Their coach was an hour after the final whistle. "They were so fast and so good. I'm already recovered," said Christian Streich. "Because who are we? We are SC Freiburg. When Leipzig play with such a line-up, there are quite a few days when we are inferior." But his team always got up again. Now we'll see if we can do something impossible on Saturday." The result is not pretty, "but we have to accept it". And: "Today's game doesn't mean that we'll have no chance again."

Speaking of impossible: Streich was anxious to quickly tick off the bad evening and rather to focus on what had been achieved throughout the entire season. "If someone had told me before the season what the guys had done so far, I would have thought it impossible," he said. In the DFB-Pokal, after losing the final in 2022, Freiburg have now reached the semi-finals, and in the Europa League, Freiburg failed in the round of <> against Juventus. And in the Bundesliga, Freiburg are on course for the Champions League in fourth place – two points ahead of their current long-term rivals Leipzig.

He enjoyed the great moment of football in Freiburg. "It's special that we've done it again. Now we will try to take the last step," said Marco Rose. "I've only been here for eight months. Maybe the club has developed a certain self-image," said the coach about Leipzig's fourth appearance in the cup final in five years. "There is always belief in it, there are the empirical values. But progress cannot be taken for granted." In the final on 3 June, they will face VfB Stuttgart or Eintracht Frankfurt in Berlin, who will meet this Wednesday (20:45 CET in the F.A.Z. live ticker for the DFB Cup, on ARD and Sky).

Before that, however, there are four Bundesliga matchdays. Rose would love to see a repeat of Leipzig's performance at the same venue on Saturday. "That's every coach's fight," he said on Tuesday night. "Everyone strives for the tension to be kept high and for everyone to keep at it, to always show this attitude and the same energy. But sometimes you can't influence little things." Freiburg, however, will try not to make their score with Leipzig even bigger at the weekend - on and off the pitch.