Braga – Freiburg

The German club will kick off the semi-final duel in Portugal.

Although Braga rarely breaks into the top-3 of Portuguese football, where year after year the dominant roles of Porto, Sporting and Benfica change, on the European stage this squad is one of the most stable. Probably due to their consistent performances in secondary continental tournaments, where the competition is weaker than in the Champions League. The semifinal of the current Europa League edition is already a fairly good result for Braga, but in Portugal they believe the team got lucky with its semifinal opponent, so there is little reason not to push for a place in the final. In the second leg of the current round, two English clubs with squad values of over half a billion euros each will meet. Freiburg in such conditions looks like a "good deal". Nevertheless, the German side should not be underestimated, as underestimating them would be extremely costly. First, the experience of this team's performances in the Europa League in recent years is arguably more substantial than that of the opponent. Second, Freiburg has for several seasons in Germany been considered a cup team, regularly reaching the semifinals and finals of the national cup. In the current season, Julian Schuster's team earned a place in the German Cup final only in an uncompromising 120-minute battle with Stuttgart, conceding the decisive goal a couple of minutes before the end of the second extra time. Bookmakers have made the home side the favorites for the upcoming match, offering odds of 2.36 on their victory. Braga lost Sunday's Primeira Liga match, but it can afford that as part of preparation for the upcoming meeting. The team is very close to taking its usual fourth place in the standings. Each of Braga's previous Europa League playoff matches has been difficult. No easy outcome is expected against Freiburg. The latter also did not exert themselves much in the match against Borussia Dortmund, which took place on Sunday. A 0-4 defeat has not affected Freiburg's league position, which shows that they cannot qualify for European cups next season through the league. The value of Freiburg's current European path increases, since winning the Europa League would provide a bonus ticket to the Champions League. Let's bet that the Germans will have a successful first leg.