VfL Bochum vs Freiburg preview: Freiburg looking for their second win in 2024
Bochum host Freiburg at the Ruhrstadion during Sunday's first Bundesliga game. The away side are coming into this fixture high off a hard-fought win over West Ham in the Europa league.
Bochum
Bochum currently sit just outside of the bottom three in 15th place. However, they have lost both of their previous two Bundesliga games and in doing so have conceded nine goals.
Despite this, Bochum's biggest win in recent years came on matchday 22 as they beat Bayern Munich 3-2 unexpectedly in a result that will no doubt go in the history books.
Adding to this, Bochum are currently three points better than their points tally last season at this stage of the Bundesliga campaign.
However, only Darmstadt have conceded more than Bochum this season as the side from the Ruhr region have let in a staggering 50 goals this campaign.
Lastly, ahead of Sunday's game, Bochum coach Thomas Letsch said: "Michael Gregoritsch is very well known here. Like yesterday (against West Ham), he only needs a few minutes to decide a game.'
Team news
For Bochum, they have a long list of injuries with the following players being out: Christopher Antwi-Adjei (muscular injury), Michael Esser (knee injury), Moritz Kwarteng (red card suspension), Patrick Osterhage (calf issue), Niclas Thiede (broken finger), Mohammed Tolba (knee injury).
Freiburg
Christian Streich lead his team to a late 1-0 victory at home against West Ham despite a close call late on with a VAR decision going in their favour.
In last week's Bundesliga tie, it was the same story again as a late super Lucas Höler goal clinched a point at home to Bayern Munich.
Freiburg will no doubt be lifted by the impact of the return of captain Christian Günter as the defender scored against Bayern last weekend to open the scoring.
Contrastingly, Freiburg have had issues defensively following the departure of goalkeeper Mark Flekken last summer. The man chosen to take his place, Noah Atubolu has conceded at least two goals in each of his last seven games.
Mostly consistent, the Italian talisman and creator Vincenzo Grifo has fourteen goal contributions in the Bundesliga.
Finally, after Freiburg's midweek win, head coach Christian Streich said: "Our build-up game was good. We were very brave and controlled and that's why we won."
Team news
Finally, Daniel-Kofi Kyereh is still out for Freiburg with a knee injury. Both Philipp Lienhart and Kenneth Schmidt are also out with a groin injury and an abdominal issue respectively.