Freiburg 3-2 Wolfsburg: Keisuke Goto's late double sends hosts into the DFB-Pokal round of 16

Freiburg needed a substitute to bail them out of their own cup tie. Kento Shiogai had Wolfsburg in front twice at the Europa-Park Stadion, and it took two goals from Keisuke Goto after the hour — the second in stoppage time — to send the hosts through to the DFB-Pokal round of 16 with a 3-2 win.

Goal timeline

It could hardly have started better for the hosts. Igor Matanovic turned in the opener inside six minutes, only for Wolfsburg to answer within two through Shiogai, who struck again just before half-time to send the visitors in 2-1 up at the break — a scoreline few inside the Europa-Park Stadion would have predicted from the way the game opened.

Freiburg's response came from the bench. Head coach Julian Schuster sent on four fresh legs in the second half, and it was Keisuke Goto — one of four Freiburg substitutes, alongside Niklas Beste, Philipp Lienhart and Lukas Kübler — who turned the tie. His first goal, in the 75th minute, dragged Freiburg level at 2-2. His second came with virtually the last kick of normal time, in the second minute of stoppage, to complete the comeback and spare Freiburg a trip to extra time.

Cautions

• 36' — Yuito Suzuki (Freiburg, yellow)
• 55' — Saël Kumbedi (Wolfsburg, yellow)
• 57' — Alexander Bernhardsson (Wolfsburg, yellow)
• 60' — Maximilian Eggestein (Freiburg, yellow)
• 68' — Kento Shiogai (Wolfsburg, yellow)

Match stats

Freiburg's form coming in

The cup tie arrived in the middle of a mixed run for Freiburg. They had won four of their first five Bundesliga games of the season, including a 5-0 thrashing of Borussia Mönchengladbach and a 2-1 win over Schalke, but lost their last two league outings before the Wolfsburg game — 1-2 at Bayer Leverkusen and 1-3 at home to Bayern Munich. Shiogai's double early on looked, for a spell, like a third straight defeat for the hosts before Goto's intervention turned the night around.

What's next

Freiburg advance to the DFB-Pokal round of 16, scheduled for 1-2 December 2026; the draw for that round had not been made at the time of writing. In the Bundesliga, Freiburg sit 3rd with 13 points from seven games, seven points off the top after seven matchdays. Wolfsburg's cup run ends in the second round, three weeks after they needed penalties to get past VSG Altglienicke in the first.