FREIBURG, Germany (AP) — Union Berlin’s backup goalkeeper Matteo Raab made a last-minute save on his injured right hand in his top-flight debut to secure a 1-0 win over Freiburg in the Bundesliga on Sunday.
All Union substitutions were used when Raab collided with Freiburg’s Bruno Ogbus in stoppage time, injuring his hand when he hit a high ball on the run.
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“I just felt pain at that moment,” Raab told broadcaster DAZN. “We couldn’t make any more changes and I wanted to spend the last few minutes somehow. You have no choice but to grit your teeth, put on the gloves somehow and get it done.”
Raab used the same hand to make a superb diving save to keep out Nicklas Best’s curling shot to secure Union’s win. In stoppage time, Jung Woo-young’s low shot gave Berlin the lead.
An injury to regular starter Frederik Ronnow means Raab makes his first Bundesliga appearance since arriving in the league in July. He said he got through it on adrenaline. “I waited so long and didn’t want it to be taken away.”
United moved up two places to ninth, one place behind Freiburg.
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Also on Sunday, Deniz Uddav scored for a fifth consecutive game in the Bundesliga, thanks to a goalkeeping error, as Stuttgart beat Leipzig 1-0 and strengthened their bid to qualify for the Champions League.
Leipzig goalkeeper Maarten van der Voort was under no real pressure in the 56th minute when he passed the ball directly to Stuttgart’s Chris Frisch, who scored his 16th league goal of the season for Udav, more than any other player in the league except Bayern Munich’s Harry Kane.
Stuttgart were lucky to hold on in stoppage time when Willy Orban’s unmarked header beat goalkeeper Alexander Nübel but bounced off the post before being cleared.
Stuttgart consolidated their place in the Champions League qualifying rounds with a fourth-place finish, opening a three-point gap on fifth-placed Leipzig. Stuttgart are undefeated in five league games.
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Mainz defeated Werder Bremen 2-0 to escape relegation and rise to 13th place. Mainz scored early in the first half with a diving header from Paul Nebel and a close-range shot from Lee Jaesong’s low pass. Bremen ranked 15th.
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AP Soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer