FREIBURG, Germany (AP) – Union Berlin’s stand-in goalkeeper Matteo Raab made a last-minute diving save on his injured right hand on his top division debut to preserve his team’s 1-0 victory in the Bundesliga on Sunday against Freiburg.
Union had already used all of their substitutes when Raab injured his hand in a collision with Freiburg’s Bruno Ogbas while diving to beat a high ball in added time.
“At that moment, all I felt was pain,” Raab told broadcaster DAZN. “I couldn’t have changed it any more, so I just wanted to play out the last few minutes. There’s nothing I can do but grit my teeth, get my gloves back on and get this done.”
Raab used the same move to make an acrobatic diving save to deny Niklas Beste’s curling shot and seal Union’s victory. Jung Woo-young scored a low shot early in stoppage time to give the Berlin team the lead.
Due to an injury to regular starter Frederik Ronnow, Raab will be playing in the Bundesliga for the first time since joining Union in July. He said he got through it on adrenaline. “I’ve been waiting for this for a long time and I didn’t want it to be taken away from me.”
Union moved up two places to ninth place, one place behind Freiburg.
Also on Sunday, Deniz Undav scored in a fifth straight Bundesliga game after a goalkeeping error, giving Stuttgart a 1-0 win over Leipzig and boosting their bid for Champions League qualification.
Leipzig goalkeeper Maarten Vandevoort was not under any particular pressure in the 56th minute, passing the ball straight to Stuttgart’s Chris Fürich, who played in Unduff and scored his 16th league goal of the season, more than any other player in the league except Bayern Munich’s Harry Kane.
Stuttgart were lucky to hold on until extra time, when Willi Orbán hit a free header that beat goalkeeper Alexander Nübel, but bounced off the post and cleared.
Stuttgart gained momentum in their bid to qualify for the Champions League in fourth place, increasing their lead over Leipzig in fifth place to three points. Stuttgart are unbeaten in 5 league games.
Mainz defeated Werder Bremen 2-0, escaping the relegation battle and moving up to 13th place. Mainz scored early in the first half with a close-range finish from Paul Nebel’s diving header and Lee Jae-sung’s low cross. Bremen is 15th.
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