Ghanaian forward Kwabena Owusu was the hero for his side on Thursday night in the UEFA Europa League as  he rescued a draw for ten-man FK Qarabag against Freiburg.

Qarabag, for whom a win ensured their place in the play-off round, began fiercely and created a decent chance for Kwabwena Owusu, whose effort was tipped behind for a corner thanks to a smart, reflex save from Atubolu.

It took almost a quarter of an hour for the much-changed Freiburg side to settle into the game against their brave and tactically flexible hosts, however they did start to see much more of the ball at this stage.

SCF were also starting to move the ball up the pitch, and they had referee Aleksei Kulbakov blowing for a penalty just past the twenty-minute mark. Noah Weißhaupt sent a chipped ball over the defence and put Kevin Schade in behind, whose staggering pace could only be halted by foul play. Nils Petersen stepped up to take the spot kick and fired the ball low into the bottom-right corner (25’).

Despite Freiburg taking the lead, the home end in the Tofiq Bahramov stadium remained in good spirits and got the Mexican wave going just after half an hour. The referee blew for half time following two minutes of stoppage time, and after going ahead, SCF managed to keep Qarabag as far away from their goal as possible up until the break.

Qarabag found themselves a man down. Kevin Medina committed a studs-up challenge on Kevin Schade, who subsequently had to go off injured. Kulbakov watched a replay and then decided to award a straight red card.

Despite the extra man, Freiburg were unable to completely calm the game down as their hosts continued to run their socks off. In fact, Gurban Gurbanov’s side, who paid the price for their aggressive tactics the longer the game went on, had the better of the chances. Nantes then took the lead against Olympiacos, which meant Qarabag needed two goals to progress through to the play-off round.

SCF conceded a header from Kwabena Owusu in the first of seven second-half stoppage-time minutes as the hosts found an equaliser  but Freiburg was able to see out a draw and maintain their unbeaten record in Group G.