If Freiburg is successful against Olympiacos on Thursday, they will ensure themselves the top position in Group G of the Europa League.
In the meanwhile, the visitors have already been knocked out of the tournament; but, they still have a chance to finish in third place and earn a spot in the Europa Conference League as a consequence of their performance.
Our Match Preview: Freiburg vs Olympiacos
Christian Streich’s Freiburg team has been phenomenal in their first appearance in the Europa League group stage in nine years, winning all four of their matches and securing a spot in the knockout round with two games to spare.
Even with the new format, Breisgau-Brasilianer still needs to win their remaining two games by a combined score of 4-0 to move to the next round and avoid having to play in the first knockout round.
Consequently, there is a significant benefit for teams who finish first rather than second, particularly for a club like Freiburg that is doing well in its domestic league and would appreciate having two fewer matches to participate in if given the chance.
Indeed, Freiburg cut the deficit to league leaders Union Berlin to only two points with an impressive 2-0 win away to Werder Bremen over the weekend. This came after a disappointing 5-0 mauling at the hands of Bayern Munich saw them leapfrogged by the Bavarians into second place in their previous game.
Streich will want to keep the momentum going against the Greeks on Thursday, particularly as a victory would enable him to rest players for the final game against Qarabag FK, which would be a dead rubber if the Germans were to win the championship.
Olympiacos’ terrible start to the season has led to the dismissal of Carlos Corberan and his replacement by former Huddersfield Town manager Michel last month.
The 59-year-old is now on his second stint as manager of the Greek powerhouses; he previously led them to two domestic titles between 2013 and 2015.
So far, they’ve lost three of four league games under his direction, which is an improvement over their previous results, but they’re 10 points behind Panathinaikos, making it more improbable that they’ll win the Greek Super League for a fourth consecutive season.
Both of Olympiacos’ Europa League matches under Michel have been against Qarabag, and neither team has scored a goal. However, with a scoreless draw in Azerbaijan in their most recent match, Olympiacos earned their first point of the season.
Erythrolefki is two points behind third-place Nantes, who they will play at Karaiskakis Stadium next week; if they lose both of their remaining games, they would be ousted from European competition entirely.
Our Team News: Freiburg vs Olympiacos
On Thursday, it is quite possible that Manuel Gulde, Kimberly Ezekwem, Jonathan Schmid, and Roland Sallai will not play for Freiburg since they have sustained injuries.
Given that his team is already guaranteed to advance to the knockout stages of the competition, Streich may be tempted to give several key players a rest. This is especially true taking into consideration that they have an important match against Schalke 04 on the schedule for Sunday in the Bundesliga.
As a result, players like Lucas Holer, Maximilian Eggestein, and Ritsu Doan, who all appeared off the bench throughout the last game, might be asked to start this one.
Olympiacos, on the other hand, is dealing with a multitude of injury issues at the moment. Tomas Vaclik, Konstantinos Tzolakis, Pape Abou Cisse, Ousseynou Ba, and Pajtim Kasami are not expected to go to Freiburg.
Cedric Bakambu and James Rodriguez, who both began in attack in the 2-0 victory away to Panetolikos at the weekend, are not registered for the Europa League. As a result, Michel will be obliged to make some changes to compete in the competition.
- Freiburg Possible Starting Lineup: Flekken, Kubler, Lienhart, Schlotterbeck, Gunter; Eggestein, Keitel, Doan, Woo-Yeong, Holer, Petersen.
- Olympiacos Possible Starting Lineup: Paschalakis, Pipa, Ntoi, Papastathopoulos, Reabciuk, Masouras, M’Vila, Hwang, Biel, Kamara, El Arabi.
Our Prediction: Freiburg 2-0 Olympiacos
We anticipate Freiburg to have a higher overall level of play than Olympiacos, who are handicapped by the absence of many players owing to injuries and regulations regarding squad registration.
If the home team prevails, they will try to keep their perfect record in the Europa League and will be one step closer to claiming first place in Group G.