1. FC Union Berlin put a damper on SC Freiburg's Champions League ambitions and secured their second entry into international business in a row.
Led by attacker Sheraldo Becker, who was in a good mood, the Köpenickers won 4-1 (3-0) against the South Badeners on Saturday.
Grischa Prömel (11th minute), Christopher Trimmel (30th), Becker himself (41st) and substitute András Schäfer (90th) scored the goals for the extremely efficient guests in front of 34,700 spectators in the Europa-Park Stadium.
Lucas Höler (59th) shortened for the Sport-Club in the meantime.
After the penultimate day of the Bundesliga, Union is sixth in the table, ends the season in seventh place in the worst case and even has the chance to reach the premier class.
Freiburg remains fourth for the time being, but could be pushed out of the Champions League ranks by RB Leipzig on Sunday.
Both teams played extremely passionately right from the start, but overall Freiburg experienced a first half to forget.
Although the hosts had more possession of the ball, they found it difficult to create convincing chances against the compact defense of the Berliners.
Union, in turn, convinced with his switching game - and the highly dangerous Becker.
The nimble offensive man appeared on the right and left and was hard to grasp for the sports club's defence.
Freiburg's Maximilian Eggestein deflected a cross from the 27-year-old to the post of the SC goal, midfielder Prömel dusted off to give Union an early lead.
In the 23rd minute, Berlin goalkeeper Andreas Luthe, who had slipped into the team shortly before the start of the game for the injured Frederik Rönnöw, had to reach behind him.
However, the supposed equalization by Höler did not count.
According to the video images, referee Felix Brych decided on the Freiburg striker's handball.
And things got even worse for Baden: After another cross from Becker, visiting captain Trimmel headed in after half an hour to make it 2-0.
Shortly before the break, Becker even went one better and beat SC keeper Mark Flekken from a tight angle to make it 3-0.
Freiburg coach Christian Streich raged – and saw the yellow card.
In the second half, the SC coach brought his noble joker Nils Petersen and blew to catch up.
However, the veteran substitute initially missed the huge chance of scoring a goal (54').
Shortly afterwards, another goal from Höler was not given because of an alleged offside position, but then after a video check it was.
The Freiburgers kept the pressure on and acted a little better in the last third than before the break, but were no longer able to avoid their first defeat in five competitive games.
The substitute Schäfer even increased for Union with a low shot.