Köln vs. Freiburg preview: The last hope for the Billy Goats
Köln
Köln sit five points behind 16th-place Mainz and can no longer afford to drop more points due to their poor goal-difference record. It’s now or never for the storied club, who end the season against Union and Heidenheim following the game against Freiburg.
Luckily, Freiburg are struggling defensively and Köln should feel confident they can solve some offensive woes this weekend. Jan Thielmann, Luca Waldschmidt and Faride Alidou should start again from the off, but could be joined by Florian Kainz this time around.
In a presser, head of first team football Thomas Kessler said, “The situation is clear. As Timo (Schultz) also said, we have to concentrate on ourselves. We want to get energy onto the pitch that we showed at the end against Mainz. We can only influence our own performance.”
Team News
Mark Uth and Leart Pacarada are out, while Justin Diehl is questionable. Davie Selke and Luca Kilian will remain out.
Freiburg
With the Bundesliga having secured at least five Champions League spots, 7th-place Freiburg have an excellent chance to play Europa League football for a third straight season. It would be a wonderful way to send legendary trainer Christian Streich away into retirement.
However, the Breisgau club haven't played well in recent weeks and lost in terrible fashion to Wolfsburg last weekend. Yes, the defensive line is extremely thin, but they need the likes of Roland Sallai and Michael Gregoritsch to step up and at least hold onto 7th place in the table.
Streich said, “A few more teams have joined (the European conversation), including Bremen and Heidenheim. This is logical because these teams have nothing to lose. But, we are in a good position and now it's time to go into a really tough game in Köln.”
Team News
Daniel Kofi-Kyereh, Matthias Ginter, Philipp Lienhart, Kenneth Schmidt and Merlin Röhl are unavailable. Kiliann Sildillia and Nicolas Höfler will both serve their respective suspensions.