M. Eggestein put Freiburg ahead with a left-footed shot, Ginter the provider, but Deniz Undav answered with a right-footed finish assisted by El Khannouss to level the DFB-Pokal 2025/26 semifinal at 1:1 as extra time moved into its closing stages.
The 1:1 scoreline was the hard fact by the 105th minute: Eggestein's opener had given the visitors the lead, only for Undav to draw Stuttgart level, keeping both sides alive in a match that had already produced a disallowed goal from Höler and a glaring miss by El Khannouss in the second 45 minutes.
For freiburg fc the match pivoted on that early extra-time exchange. Ginter's assist set up Eggestein's left-footed strike that forced Stuttgart to chase. Stuttgart responded through El Khannouss, whose pass released Undav for the right-footed equaliser that erased Freiburg's lead and reset the balance in the semifinal.
The game had been stretched thin by tactical changes and fouls. Stuttgart received yellow cards for Leweling and Hendriks, and the visitors used multiple substitutions — Scherhant on for Grifo and Höler on for Matanovic — as they chased an edge. Stuttgart, too, reshaped its line-up, bringing on Nartey for El Khannouss, Tiago Tomas for Demirovic and Jaquez for Hendriks.
Tension built through the second half and into extra time. By the 105th minute the live ticker recorded a disallowed Höler goal and a big chance missed by El Khannouss, moments that underlined how thin the margins had become. A minute later Scherhant fouled Leweling in a duel, and at 105' plus 2 El Khannouss fouled Manzambi and conceded a free kick, prompting the referee team to add two minutes after the first 15 minutes of extra time.
Those fouls and the added time mattered because they handed both teams set-piece moments and brief windows to press for a decisive goal. The pattern had been clear: a single clinical move, or a single lapse, could decide the tie. Substitutions on both sides suggested coaches were hunting for fresh legs to tip the balance as extra time neared its end.
The match already carried the weight of a semifinal and those on-field events sharpened the stakes. Stuttgart's equaliser through Undav showed the visitors vulnerable to swift counters, while Freiburg's earlier lead illustrated their ability to strike from structured build-up. With the score at 1:1 and the clock in added time of the first extra period, neither side had managed to seize control long enough to put the game beyond doubt.
What happens next is straightforward and stark: the tie remains finely poised and the remaining minutes of extra time will determine which team presses for a winner and which must gamble further. The sequence — Eggestein's left-footed opener, Ginter's assist, Undav's reply from a pass by El Khannouss, the disallowed Höler goal, El Khannouss's miss and the late fouls — left one thing clear, that a single moment in the waning extra-time minutes will decide who reaches the DFB-Pokal final.
