The Roten Bullen won the first major trophy in their history by beating Freiburg in a dramatic penalty shoot-out.
RB Leipzig defeated Freiburg to win the DFB Pokal on Saturday. Following a thrilling 1-1 draw, Domenico Tedesco’s men edged out their opponents in the penalties to register a historic victory in Leipzig’s history.
Leipzig are DFB Pokal champions!
Freiburg found a strong start to the game as they pushed hard to find an early breakthrough.
Following a few missed chances, Maximilian Eggestein opened the scoring for Freiburg in the 19th minute.
Leipzig displayed signs of improvement after conceding the first goal but were still struggling to find their feet in the game.
After the interval, the Roten Bullen looked much improved as they managed to increase the pressure on Freiburg’s backline.
However, Marcel Halsetenberg’s straight red card in the 57th minute, once again, ruined their rhythm.
Freiburg even pushed to double their lead after their opponents went a man down, but Leipzig kept on attacking and finally found the equalizer in the 76th minute.
A header from Willi Orban found Christopher Nkunku unmarked in the back post. The French star slid in to smash the ball into the back of the net from a tight angle.
Freiburg kept on with their dangerous goalscoring attempts throughout the extra time. Ermedin Demirovic and Janik Heberer came the closest, but their strikes were deflected off the bar.
Having survived their opponents’ relentless attacks, Leipzig then won the game with a brilliant performance in the shoot-outs. They scored all four of their penalties while Demirovic and Christian Gunter missed for Freiburg.
The 2021-22 DFB Pokal becomes Leipzig’s first-ever major title in the German football pyramid.
Player Ratings
Freiburg: Flekken (8), Gunter (7), Schlotterbeck (8), Leinhart (7), Gulde (7), Kubler (7), Hofler (7), Grifo (7), Eggestein (7), Holer (6), Sallai (7).
Bench: K. Schlotterbeck (6), Haberer (7), Peterson (6), Demirovic (5).
Leipzig: Gulacsi (7), Orban (8), Halstenberg (4), Simakan (7), Henricks (6), Leimer (5), Kampl (6), Klostermann (6), Forsberg (6), Nkunku (7), Silva (5).
Bench: Mukiele (7), Gvardiol (6), Adams (6), Szoboszlai (7), Olmo (5).
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