It was the first and likely craziest match of the quarterfinals, and Freiburg managed to edge Mainz 3-2 in extra time to advance to the semifinals of the 2012-13 DFB Pokal.
Mainz vs. Freiburg : Final score 3-2, Freiburg advances to semifinal for first time ever
Mainz scored twice in the first four minutes, but Freiburg came all the way back to win in extra time and advance to the DFB Pokal semifinal for the first time ever.
Thomas Tuchel’s side looked like they were shot out of a cannon at the start of the match. The opening goal came just two minutes into the match when Chinedu Ede drew two defenders before cutting the ball back to Shawn Parker. The forward had an open goal in front of him and put his shot in the back of the net for the 1-0 lead.
Freiburg didn’t have a chance to recover from the shock of conceding so early and found themselves down 2-0 just two minutes later. Niki Zimling cracked a shot from the top of the box that took a minor deflection before beating Oliver Baumann for the goal.
Mainz began to sink back a little bit while Freiburg inserted themselves more and more into the match. However, the match turned on it’s head in the second half. Zdenek Pospech was sent off for his second yellow card of the match in the 65th minute.
Freiburg hit the post and crossbar about 32 times in the last twenty minutes. Okay, it wasn’t that many times, but it seemed like it. Freiburg finally pulled one back in the 86th minute. Matthias Ginter struck the post, but Ivan Santini was able to knock the rebound in to make it 2-1.
Pavel Krmas nearly grabbed the equalizer in the final minutes. As the final seconds were ticking off the clock and it seemed that Mainz were heading to the semifinals, the referee blew his whistle and called a foul on Mainz’s Bo Svensson. Oh, yeah, it was in the penalty area. The foul was definitely debatable, but the referee seemed sure in his convictions. Daniel Caligiuri stepped up and converted the penalty three minutes into stoppage time to level the score.
Playing extra time with a man down was too much for Mainz, and Caligiuri finished a cross from Max Kruse to make it 3-2. Freiburg held on to the score and advanced to the semifinals of the DFB Pokal for the first time in club history.
More in Soccer:
See More:
