Sebastian Hoeness said his Stuttgart side are in a battle with Freiburg to reach the DFB-Pokal final ahead of their semi-final showdown at MHPArena on Thursday.
Stuttgart are on the cusp of reaching back-to-back showpiece matches in the competition, having won their fourth title in 2025 with a 4-2 victory over Arminia Bielefeld.
Die Roten are also on course to return to the Champions League stage, having missed out last season, with Hoeness’ side currently fourth in the Bundesliga with four games left.
However, Stuttgart’s success in the DFB-Pokal last season saw them qualify for the Europa League in 2025-26, though they were eliminated in the round of 16 by Porto.
And they have often enjoyed this competition, particularly against Freiburg. Stuttgart have progressed in four of their five DFB-Pokal matches against Breisgau-Brasilianer, most recently with a 1-0 home win in the second round of the 2020-21 season.
Stuttgart have also kept a clean sheet in their last three DFB-Pokal matches. Only once before have they had a longer run without conceding in the competition (four consecutive cup games in 1982-83).
While Freiburg’s hopes of reaching Europe from the Bundesliga are all but over, they find themselves with two possibilities of getting there, with the club in the semi-finals of the Europa League, where they face Braga, as well as being in the final four of this competition.
Hoeness said his team acknowledged the challenge ahead of them, but he insisted that he was confident that his players could get the job done.
“We’re highly, highly motivated to reach our second DFB Cup final in succession – you can already feel the positive energy among the lads,” Hoeness told reporters.
“It’s going to be a cup battle, we’re 100% sure of that. Freiburg will travel to Stuttgart full of confidence.
“They’re also in the Europa League semi-finals and in a good position in the league.”
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Rasch analysiert der VfB die 2:4-Niederlage in München, denn das nächste große Spiel kündigt sich bereits an: Am Donnerstag geht es gegen den SC Freiburg um den Finaleinzug im DFB-Pokal.
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— VfB Stuttgart 1893 (@VfB) April 20, 2026
Hoeness also pointed to the big-game experience within his ranks, citing huge matches which included their promotion back to the Bundesliga in 2019-20.
“We’ve had a number of really important games in recent years, whether in the relegation play-off, the Bundesliga, the DFB Cup or in European competition,” Hoeness added.
“We’re capable of applying pressure and delivering dominant displays, but we need to defend at the highest level and be wide awake, particularly when it comes to transitions.”
Freiburg, meanwhile, are in the DFB-Pokal semi-finals for the fourth time, with Julian Schuster being the first coach since the departure of Christian Streich to be on the touchline for them at this stage. They only progressed to the final in 2021-22, when Freiburg beat Hamburg.
They were beaten on penalties by RB Leipzig four years ago, and did reach the final four the following year, but were again beaten by the same opponents in normal time (5-1).
But among the euphoria of reaching a European semi-final mixed with a strong campaign in the Bundesliga, Schuster urged his players to remain focused.
“We enjoyed the moment for a little while,” Schuster said. “Despite all the happiness over what we achieved, it was also something we spoke about straight away.
“The real quality lies in producing that kind of performance again on Thursday and not resting on our laurels. The team have done that really well recently.”
