Vincenzo Grifo calls on Freiburg to maintain form after historic win | OneFootball

SC Freiburg are through to their first-ever European quarter-final after a 5-1 victory over Genk on Thursday. Vincenzo Grifo scored a crucial goal that put the Bundesliga side ahead in the tie early in the second-half.

"You fight your entire career to achieve something like this," said the ex-Italian international after his strike saw him leapfrog Nils Petersen as Freiburg’s all-time top-scorer.

The 32-year-old winger mentioned there were doubts over their capability to reverse the first-leg defeat after losing at home to Union Berlin, but their half-time team talk changed matters.” At half-time, we said to ourselves: 'Hey, we turned the game around. It's now 0:0. That was our goal,'"

Freiburg scored twice inside six minutes in the first-half before Genk made it 2-2 on aggregate before the start of the second-half. Grifo’s historic moment started the rout in a dominant display after the break as Julian Schuster’s side scored three unanswered goals.

"I think the fans were there late into the evening yesterday to prepare the choreography. Ultimately, they were instrumental in the atmosphere created inside the stadium. There is euphoria after this, but we want to maintain it.”

Freiburg will host Celta Vigo in the first-leg of the quarter-final. They are also in the semi-final of the DFB-Pokal, where they will face neighbors Stuttgart next month.