{"id":48973,"date":"2026-04-24T12:04:35","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T12:04:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=48973"},"modified":"2026-04-24T12:04:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T12:04:35","slug":"tomas-stunner-sends-stuttgart-into-german-cup-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=48973","title":{"rendered":"Tomas stunner sends Stuttgart into German Cup final"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Tiago Tomas&#8217; stunning 119th-minute back-heel sent Stuttgart to a German Cup final meeting with Bayern Munich after a 2-1 extra-time home win over Freiburg on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Maximilian Eggestein&#8217;s first-half opener had Freiburg on track for a second German Cup final but Deniz Undav levelled things up with 20 minutes remaining.<\/p>\n<p>Moments away from a penalty shootout, Tomas lept high and glanced a clever back-heel into the left-hand corner to keep Stuttgart&#8217;s German Cup title defence on track.<\/p>\n<p>Stuttgart, who opened the German football season with a home Supercup clash against freshly-minted Bundesliga champions Bayern, will now face the Bavarians once again in the final match of the domestic campaign.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m done. It was a whole body fight,&#8221; Undav said to Sky Germany, before praising Tomas. &#8220;119th minute, pure drama &#8212; that&#8217;s the best kind of goal you can score as a striker. That was world class.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Freiburg took the lead with 28 minutes gone when Eggestein got a boot to a Matthias Ginter header and edged it past Stuttgart goalkeeper Alexander Nuebel.<\/p>\n<p>Former Freiburg forward Ermedin Demirovic had a chance to equalise just before the break but lifted a close-range shot over the bar.<br \/>\nFreiburg repeatedly put their bodies on the line to keep Stuttgart at bay, with visiting striker Igor Matanovic&#8217;s full-body block stopping an Undav shot just before the break.<\/p>\n<p>Stuttgart had the ball in the net just after the hour mark when Angelo Stiller cut a shot across the face of goal and into the corner but creator Demirovic was offside.<\/p>\n<p>The hosts eventually broke through with 20 minutes remaining when Undav finished off a length-of-the-field counter to level up the scores.<br \/>\nStuttgart had a flurry of chances in the final stages of regulation time. Undav hit the right post and dragged another effort just wide of the left, while Freiburg &#8216;keeper Florian Mueller saved from Chris Fuehrich.<\/p>\n<p>Freiburg had cause to complain early in extra time when Lucas Hoeler&#8217;s goal did not count because the referee blew the whistle for a soft foul moments before scoring, meaning it could not be reviewed by VAR.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It was never a foul. We won, we&#8217;re satisfied. If I were the striker, I would be annoyed. Good luck for us, tough for Freiburg,&#8221; Undav said.<br \/>\nThe match looked headed for penalties but Tomas&#8217; incredible display of skill in the final minute booked Stuttgart&#8217;s spot in the Berlin showpiece on May 23.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tiago Tomas&#8217; stunning 119th-minute back-heel sent Stuttgart to a German Cup final meeting with Bayern Munich after a 2-1 extra-time home win over Freiburg on Thursday. Maximilian Eggestein&#8217;s first-half opener had Freiburg on track for a second German Cup final but Deniz Undav levelled things up with 20 minutes remaining. Moments away from a penalty [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48973\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}