By Nathalia Araújo, dpa
Freiburg would have sealed the qualification to the last 16 if Porto hadn’t scored a late equaliser against Viktoria Plzen for a 1-1 draw.
Due to that result, Freiburg can still mathematically be knocked out of the top eight.
The match had a massive police presence, with more than 2,000 officers deployed for the game to prevent possible anti-Semitic incidents.
Maccabi are the most popular club in Israel and their fans have been the target of anti-Semitism, but they also have made headlines with racist and anti-Arab slogans.
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Several Freiburg ultra groups didn’t attend the match because they felt their fan culture freedom was being restricted. Many other seats also remained empty, which had a noticeable effect on the atmosphere in the stadium.
“It wasn’t an easy game due to the circumstances and also because of the opposition. There was a big risk of underestimating them. You could see that the team wasn’t taking it lightly,” Freiburg coach Julian Schuster said.
“It was important for me today to have life on the pitch and on the bench. You could feel a lot of support there. And also from the fans: that was really positive, thank you very much for that. And in the end, we deserved to get three points,” he added.
