“The way we play will be the deciding factor”

Saturday will mark FC St. Pauli’s third visit to the Europa-Park Stadion, after they were the guests for the inaugural match at the ground, a friendly in October 2021, before then travelling to Freiburg for an action-packed DFB-Pokal tie a year later. In the club’s first Bundesliga season since 2010/11, Alexander Blessin’s side picked up their first point at home to Leipzig on Sunday. “I am really pleased that St. Pauli are back,” said Julian Schuster. “I see them as a really great club with cultural standing.”

The SC head coach was also impressed by the upcoming opponent from a sporting perspective. “We were able to watch how they played against Leipzig last Sunday. They could have won that game. They played good football and operated as a team.”

Eyes will not only be on the former SC players in the opposition’s ranks on Saturday afternoon, namely Philipp Treu, Carlo Boukhalfa and Robert Wagner, however the latter is a doubt for the game. Attention will also be on the match-up between Maximilian and Johannes Eggestein. “It is always a great story when two players come up against one another,” said Schuster. “From what I’ve heard, they’ve both got quite a few people coming to the game, which I think might be hard to forget about for the 90 minutes.” For Maximilian, the match will be his 100th in Freiburg colours.

Best start to a top-flight season

SC have never recorded a better start a Bundesliga season than in this, sitting on nine points to date, having scored eight goals and conceded just four. For Julian Schuster, however, that is not as important as other matters. “The way we play will be the deciding factor as to whether we can continue to win games over a longer period.” The 39-year-old has been pleased with his team’s performances so far.

The Freiburg coaching staff will once again have to do without Merlin Röhl and Daniel-Kofi Kyereh for the match against FC St. Pauli. Michael Gregoritsch and Maximilian Philipp were both able to take part in the majority of team training again this week. Kiliann Sildillia continues to train individually after picking up a knock before the Heidenheim game.

Max Rosenfelder could return to the squad on Saturday after overcoming back problems. “We have options and will have to assess the situation closely. Max started the season well before he was then out. Now others have done well,” said Schuster. A back three of Matthias Ginter, Philipp Lienhart and Rosenfelder could be another option. “We definitely want to have flexibility, which poses further difficulty for the opposition.”

Matthias Ginter scored with a header when the sides last met to take their DFB-Pokal round-of-16 tie into extra-time, before Michael Gregoritsch netted in the 119th minute to secure a quarter-final spot for SC. Many of the spectators who were in the stadium on 19th October 2022 would be happy to watch a similarly exciting match this time around with an equally favourable outcome for the hosts.

Photo: SC Freiburg