A trip to Scotland is a new experience for SC, and so too is Fir Park. The home of the Scottish Premiership side, who qualified for the Conference League after finishing fourth last season, has plenty of history behind it. Its four asymmetrical stands give the ground a distinctive look, with Fir Park holding just over 13,000 supporters.

“I’m really looking forward to it. I’ve never been to Scotland before. Getting to experience something new is one of the great things about playing in Europe. The stadium is very traditional too. It’s got that classic football feel to it,” said Julian Schuster ahead of the game. Captain Christian Günter is equally excited about the start of the European campaign: “It’s always special to play a game abroad, and I’ve never been to Scotland either.”

Before the team left Freiburg, with around 450 SC fans also making the trip, the club announced that Vincenzo Grifo had extended his contract. “He’s hugely important to us, both on and off the pitch. There are plenty of reasons why we wanted him to stay,” said Schuster.

The 33-year-old is also among those in contention to start in Motherwell as he begins his seventh season in an SC shirt. “The lads already know the side, and it wasn’t easy for us as a coaching team to settle on the starting XI this week,” Schuster revealed. Lucas Höler will not be involved in the first competitive game of the season, with his wife due to give birth to their second child shortly. Rouven Tarnutzer, Karl Steinmann and Rihito Yamamoto have also not travelled.

Force them into mistakes

One statistic offers plenty of encouragement ahead of the trip to Scotland. SC Freiburg haven’t lost their opening competitive game of a season in any of the past 14 campaigns, winning 13 of them. Motherwell, by contrast, have already played seven competitive matches this summer.

They have taken four points from their opening two league games. In Europe, Motherwell entered the competition in the second qualifying round and came through their four matches comfortably. They did, however, suffer a setback ahead of their first meeting with SC, going out in the second round of the Scottish League Cup.

“They may not be a big name, but we’ve already seen from the footage that they have quality,” Günter said of the Steelmen. Schuster is expecting “an exciting and demanding challenge” for his side. “They play good football, and we’ll need to play with real intensity to force them into mistakes.”

Photo: Achim Keller