Freiburg stand as the sole remaining Bundesliga representative in European competition this season, after Bayern Munich were eliminated from the Champions League by holders Paris Saint-Germain. The official Bundesliga website confirmed the position, noting that the Europa League semi-finals now represent the last stage at which German football has any stake in the 2025/26 continental calendar.
It is a significant moment of contraction for the Bundesliga in Europe. Earlier rounds had seen multiple German clubs in action across the three UEFA club competitions, but attrition through the knockout stages has reduced that presence to one. Freiburg, who play their home fixtures at the Europa-Park Stadion, have reached the last four of the Europa League — a competition that has historically rewarded well-organised sides willing to press high and defend their structure across two legs.
Bayern's exit to PSG is the headline loss. The French club, who won last season's Champions League, proved capable of ending the Bavarian club's campaign, and their involvement in this season's edition now continues without Germany's most decorated club alongside them. It is a pointed illustration of the broader competitive distance that has opened, in recent seasons, between the top end of Ligue 1 and the Bundesliga on the European stage.
The exits of other Bundesliga sides earlier in the competition — across the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League — mean that Freiburg's run carries an unusual weight. The club have built steadily over a number of years under consistent management, and their presence at the semi-final stage of a UEFA competition is not accidental. They have earned it across a long campaign.
Whether Freiburg can go further remains to be seen. The Europa League semi-finals bring opponents of considerable quality, and the pressure of representing an entire league's continental ambitions is a different kind of burden to simply progressing on merit. For now, though, the Bundesliga's European story in 2025/26 runs through one club in the south-west corner of Germany — and that club will be expected to make the most of what remains.