SC Freiburg Haberleri

The draw was done at the German Football Museum in Dortmund by SGS Essen player Jaqueline Meißner, who didn’t grant SC their wish of a home tie. Christian Streich’s side will face FC Bayern, the reigning German champions, away from home. Freiburg have made hard work of all three cup ties so far this season, needing extra time against both Kaiserslautern and St. Pauli, and scoring late on in the win at Sandhausen. Bayern, on the other hand, have been extremely convincing. They have beaten Viktoria Köln 5-0, FC Augsburg 5-2, and Mainz 4-0 last time out.

In contrast to the starting XI that beat Werder Bremen 2-0 last Saturday, Freiburg returned to a four-at-the-back system. Lukas Kübler started at right-back, and Kiliann Sildillia moved to the bench in place of Ritsu Doan. 

SC will play five games in the 15 days left before the mid-season break: four in the Bundesliga and one in the Europa League. “Winning our group has us feeling good, and we can fly to Azerbaijan with peace of mind,” Grifo said ahead of the team’s final group stage match in Baku next Thursday.

The Freiburg coaching team didn’t want to speculate too much over potential tactical changes under Reis. Other things were most important, as SC head coach Christian Streich outlined after the game, “We spoke about mentality and  attitude – and the team showed the right mentality and attitude from the start onwards.”

Making the longest away journey having already won the group

Another contrast was that of the positions of the two sides before kick-off. Whilst SCF had already safely secured their place in the Europa League round of 16 as Group G winners with one game to spare last Thursday, Gurban Gurbanov’s side found themselves playing for second place in the group, fighting against Nantes who faced the already-eliminated Olympiacos at the same time.