{"id":2049,"date":"2026-05-08T13:33:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T05:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/?p=2049"},"modified":"2026-05-08T13:33:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T05:33:11","slug":"kuebler-brace-sends-freiburg-past-braga-into-europa-league-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/08\/kuebler-brace-sends-freiburg-past-braga-into-europa-league-final\/","title":{"rendered":"Kuebler brace sends Freiburg past Braga into Europa League final"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"667\" src=\"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/image-8.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2050\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/image-8.png 1000w, https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/image-8-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/image-8-768x512.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Lukas Kuebler scored in each half as Freiburg beat Braga 3-1 at home on Thursday to win 4-3 on aggregate and and qualify for the Europa League final where they will face Aston Villa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Freiburg trailed by a goal from the opening leg but were given a leg up after seven minutes when Mario Dorgeles of Braga received a straight red card.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kuebler&#8217;s opener and Johan Manzambi&#8217;s brilliant effort had the hosts 2-0 up and one ahead in the tie by half-time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kuebler added another in the second-half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pau Victor pulled one back for Braga late, Freiburg held on to reach a first European final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Goalscorer Kuebler said the result was a &#8220;dream come true&#8221; and thanked the home fans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Freiburg have never won a major trophy nor qualified for the Champions League but could do both with a win over Villa in the final in Istanbul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Freiburg defender Matthias Ginter, who won the 2014 World Cup with Germany, said Thursday&#8217;s game was &#8220;the most important home match in the club&#8217;s history&#8221;, but called on his side to go one better in the final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The defeat ended Braga&#8217;s hopes of returning to the Europa League final for the first time since 2011.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Locked at 1-1 for much of the opening leg, Braga winger Dorgeles&#8217; late goal gave Braga a first-leg advantage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Just seven minutes in, Dorgeles turned villain for the visitors, receiving a red card for a last-man foul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The hosts took the lead with 19 minutes gone when Kuebler&#8217;s goal trickled in at the far post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Manzambi&#8217;s curling strike gave Freiburg the lead in the tie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kuebler headed in a Vincenzo Grifo free-kick to give Freiburg a two-goal cushion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With 11 minutes remaining, Victor headed in a cross to cut Freiburg&#8217;s lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the final whistle, the Freiburg ultras stormed the pitch in celebration, reaching the second major final in their history, after the 2022 German Cup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lukas Kuebler scored in each half as Freiburg beat Brag [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2050,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2049"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2049\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2051,"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2049\/revisions\/2051"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}