Freiburg vs. Union Berlin preview: Hosts aiming to continue impressive home form

Freiburg

Freiburg extended their impressive unbeaten streak to 11 home league matches with a dramatic 3-3 draw in last Saturday’s home clash with Bayer Leverkusen. The hosts were pegged back on two occasions, before Martin Terrier found the net in the early stages of the second half to turn the game in Leverkusen’s favour. Freiburg appeared to be heading towards their first home defeat since August until Mattias Ginter scored an 86th-minute equaliser to rescue a point. 

Unfortunately for Freiburg, they were unable to salvage anything from Thursday’s Europa League clash against Genk. Zakaria El Ouahdi’s first-half effort condemned Freiburg to a 1-0 defeat in Belgium, leaving Julian Schuster’s side with work to do in Thursday’s second leg if they are to reach the quarter-final stage. 

Before they focus on that quarter-final tie, Freiburg will turn their focus back to their Bundesliga campaign, with the Breisgau-Brasilianer sitting in eighth place and 10 points adrift of the top six. 

Team News

Freiburg defender Max Rosenfelder remains sidelined with the thigh injury that has kept him out of the last four competitive matches. Meanwhile, Jan-Niklas Beste should be fit to feature despite being forced off in the second half of Thursday’s defeat to Genk. 

Predicted lineup: Atubolu; Treu, Ginter, Ogbus, Makengo; Eggestein, Manzambi; Beste, Suzuki, Scherhant; Matanović

Union Berlin

Steffen Baumgart’s side took the lead in their most recent outing against Bremen, but the complexion of the contest drastically changed when András Schäfer was dismissed in the 19th minute, just moments after Derrick Köhn had dispatched his penalty. Bremen ultimately made full use of their numerical advantage to net four goals to condemn Union to a 4-1 loss, leaving them just four points clear of the bottom three.

Union’s hopes of returning to winning ways on Sunday will be tempered by a run of three consecutive away defeats. Those losses make up part of a five-game winless run on the road, making it nearly three months without an away league win since beating Baumgart’s former side, Köln, in December. 

The visitors can at least take confidence from the fact they have avoided defeat in each of their last six meetings with Freiburg, including a 2-1 success in their most recent visit to Europa-Park Stadion in March 2025. 

Team News

Union are unable to call upon the injured duo of Diogo Leite and Robert Skov, while Leopold Querfeld and Schäfer are both suspended for Sunday’s fixture. 

Predicted lineup: Rønnow; Doekhi, Král, Nsoki; Haberer, Khedira, Kemlein, Köhn; Jeong, Ansah, Ilić