The fixtures have been coming thick and fast for SC Freiburg this autumn. A trip to the south of France was followed by a Bundesliga home game against Bayern and a DFB-Pokal tie against second-tier VfL Wolfsburg at the Europa-Park Stadion. Now, Freiburg are back on the road for a Bundesliga clash in Augsburg.

After the cup victory over Wolfsburg, Matthias Ginter was asked whether the relentless schedule was starting to take its toll. “Actually, we’re coping pretty well. But extra time would have been tough,” replied the centre-back, who, like most of the 32,000 spectators, was probably relieved to see Freiburg get the job done inside 90 minutes.

Two late goals from Keisuke Goto secured victory over Wolfsburg and sent SC through to the round of 16, providing a welcome confidence boost after three games without a win. “After failing to win our last three games, it was important for us to turn this one around and get a result like that,” said head coach Julian Schuster.

Back to a traditional Saturday afternoon kick-off

Wednesday’s victory over the second-tier side was not without its problems, however, with Philipp Treu picking up an injury and plenty of room for improvement in Freiburg’s performance. With so little time between Bundesliga, DFB-Pokal and Conference League fixtures, there is barely an opportunity to address everything on the training ground. Nevertheless, Schuster is determined not to let those shortcomings go unaddressed. “Even though we’re short on training sessions at the moment, we want to try to improve on the things that didn’t go quite right against Wolfsburg and in our previous games.”

That will be the approach when Freiburg travel to Augsburg, where they can look forward to the relative novelty of a Saturday afternoon kick-off. Christian Günter, who set up the early opener in the cup, is expecting “a real battle”. The captain believes Augsburg have improved as a footballing side this season. Like SC, the ‘Fuggerstädter’ enjoyed a spell at the top of the Bundesliga table after opening their campaign with convincing wins over Schalke (3-0) and Frankfurt (4-1). Although they have not won since, they have picked up impressive draws against FC Bayern and Bayer Leverkusen.

With two days to go until the game, Freiburg are still awaiting a diagnosis on Philipp Treu, who was forced off injured against Wolfsburg. Derry Scherhant and Jordy Makengo, both of whom missed the cup tie, could be back in contention for the trip to the ninth-placed side. Schuster was hopeful of having his players available again: “We’re hoping that all the players who have been carrying knocks recently will be fit for Saturday.”

Photo: SC Freiburg