Freiburg vs. West Ham preview: Team news and predicted lineups
Here is our preview of Thursday's Europa League round of 16 first leg clash between Freiburg and West Ham, including predicted lineups.
Freiburg and West Ham will go head-to-head for the third time this season when they meet in the second leg of the last-16 tie at the Europa-Park stadium on Thursday evening.
The two sides also met in the group stages of the tournament, so they're no strangers to each other.
With West Ham winning the previous two meetings, Freiburg coach Christian Streich is well aware of the Premier League side's quality.
"We’ll need to cover for each other and communicate. It’s important that we don’t just have six players at the back in a line and that we don’t let ourselves be pinned back," he said at his pre-match press conference on Wednseday.
"We want to be in control of the game. The lads have to believe in themselves, which is something we’ve been discussing," Streich explained.
West Ham go into the game on the back of wins over Everton and Brentford, while Freiburg last drew 2-2 with Bayern Munich after showing a strong mentality to grab a late equaliser.
Long-term absentees Daniel-KOfi Kyereh, Philpp Lienhart, Max Rosenfelder and Kenneth Schmidt remain unavailable for Freiburg.
Maxwel Cornet is out for West Ham, while Nayef Aguerd is a doubt.
Click here to see our predicted Freiburg vs. West Ham lineups.