SC Freiburg

However, he wasn’t the only player to come away from Thursday night full of confidence; this victory gave a boost to the entire team: “The win was important in view of both the upcoming test in Mainz and the weeks to come,” said Gregoritsch. Maximilian Eggestein said: “Europa League nights like these give you a spring in your step.” SCF’s opponents on Saturday have improved after a difficult start to the season; Mainz are unbeaten in four games and have been led by a new coach for the past three games. Since Jan Siewert took over from Bo Svensson, he has picked up five points from three games. However, the 05ers are still sitting in 16th position in the standings.

There was a change in formation to that which began the weekend’s 1-1 draw vs. Darmstadt, as a four-back system was deployed. Kiliann Sildillia replaced Manuel Gulde in the starting XI and began the game at right-back, with Jordy Makengo making his first start for SCF at left-back. 

Lucas Höler is aware of how the table looks ahead of Thursday’s fixture: “Obviously, there’s a bit more pressure on Olympiacos, but that doesn’t affect our game whatsoever. We go into every game with the aim of winning, especially when we’re playing in front of a home crowd.” 34,000 fans are expected to be in the Europa-Park Stadion on Thursday evening. 

With the tall Austrian upfront, SC played lots of long balls in the first few minutes, with Gregoritsch having a shot from the edge of the box blocked after 6 minutes. SC controlled the game and obviously it was a set piece – Freiburg and Darmstadt are among the best teams from set pieces in the league – which led to the next opportunity (12’). Vincenzo Grifo’s central freekick from distance crept narrowly wide of the left-hand post.

Darmstadt 98 also play good football. The Lilies, who dominated the 2. Bundesliga last season, have had to adapt quickly to the reality of life in the top-flight – the newly-promoted side had to wait until matchday 6 for their first win, with another win and a draw following directly afterwards against Ausgburg and Borussia Mönchengladbach respectively. Torsten Lieberknecht’s team have picked up one point since then, picking up a draw against Mainz 05 last time out. They also registered their first clean sheet of the season against Mainz, whilst this also represented a small sense of achievement for Darmstadt given that they have conceded the most goals in the league so far this season (32).

Head coach Ralf Rangnick once again called up Philipp Lienhart and Michael Gregoritsch to the Austria national team. Austria were in action away from home in Estonia in a European Championships qualifier. Both Lienhart and Gregoritsch started the game and Lienhart scored his first international goal with a header after Konrad Laimer had put Austria ahead.

Ritsu Doan and Japan will kick off their qualifying campaign for the 2026 World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the USA with a game against Myanmar, before travelling to Syria for their second group game.

Both sides have been having mixed campaigns in domestic competition so far, with both being eliminated in the second round of the DFB-Pokal recently – Freiburg after having reached the final in 2022 and the semi-finals in 2023, and Leipzig as the two-time defending champions. Head coach Marco Rose’s side lost 2-0 in Mainz last time out, giving the Zerofivers their first win this season. “We’ve lost ground in the Bundesliga,” Rose said recently, with his side currently in fifth place, eight points behind league leaders Bayer 04 Leverkusen.

The opening exchanges of this Europa League Group A match were, however, marked by both small and big mistakes on both sides. A poor backpass in the first minute almost put keeper Noah Atubolu in a difficult situation, and at the other end, Lucas Höler caught a TSC defender napping in his own penalty box and was only denied the opening goal by a Veljko Ilic save (4’). The 20-year-old Serbian keeper was also on hand to keep out Noah Weißhaupt’s 18-yard effort just one minute later.