Freiburg vs. Köln preview: Can Freiburg get into Europe?
Freiburg head into this game level on points with Eintracht Frankfurt in seventh, whereas a win could take Köln three points clear of the drop zone.
| Christian Streich. | Photo: Steven Schaap, CC BY-SA 4.0 |
Freiburg
Freiburg have finally found form in the Bundesliga, winning their last two games by the same scoreline (one-nil). This marks the first time since August they have managed to achieve this feat.
In their last game, it was a story of defence winning games for Freiburg as they edged past a strong Wolfsburg side despite having a lower expected goals (xG) tally.
Similarly, Freiburg have struggled to score so far this season with only seventeen goals falling for them and this ties them for goals with bottom of the table Darmstadt.
In midweek, Freiburg suffered a 2-0 defeat at the hands to West Ham United meaning they will play in the round of 32 in the Europa League as they only managed to finish second in their group.
Following the game against West Ham, Freiburg coach Christian Streich said: "Our tactics didn't work in the first half and we wanted to shut down all the corridors and we tried it but didn't quite succeed."
Team News
Freiburg, however, have a huge injury problem currently with all these players out: Christian Günter (broken arm), Kenneth Schmidt (abdominal issue), Daniel-Kofi Kyereh (knee injury), Maximilian Philipp (shoulder injury) and reserve goalkeeper Benjamin Uphoff (back problem).
Apart from this, the jury is still out on whether Philipp Lienhart will play as he is suffering from an adductor issue.
Köln
Köln have seen a minor uplift in form recently with their only loss in their last five games coming against Bayern Munich in a 1-0 defeat.
Despite this, they still remain the team in the Bundesliga with the fewest goals and struggled immensely last match with striker Davie Selke being unable to play.
With the return of Davie Selke (a player who has scored four goals this Bundesliga campaign) for this fixture perhaps Köln will show more attacking prowess than in their last outings.
Following the draw to Mainz in which he dropped Florian Kainz, Köln coach Steffen Baumgart said: "I did not decide against (Florian) Kainz, but for Luca (Waldschmidt), who played a good game in Darmstadt in the second half. I had spoken to Florian, it's all right."
Team News
For Köln, the only two players out are: Sargis Adamyan (muscular issue) and Leart Paqarada (another muscular problem).
