It was only six months ago that SC made their first and, to date, only trip to Turkey – a visit that brings back mixed emotions. Freiburg may have suffered a heavy defeat to Aston Villa in the Europa League final, but the pride of reaching a European final for the first time still lingers, even months after those eventful days in Istanbul.

This time, it’s Trabzon rather than Istanbul, the Black Sea coast rather than the Bosphorus, and the Conference League rather than the Europa League. More than 1,000 kilometres and a twelve-and-a-half-hour drive separate Beşiktaş Park from Papara Park, where Freiburg’s next opponents play their home games. “There’s a real sense of excitement in the squad. We keep hearing about how loud and passionate the atmosphere is here. But we want to use that to our advantage. We have to focus fully on our own game and, ideally, draw energy from this special atmosphere,” said captain Christian Günter, who joined his head coach at Wednesday evening’s press conference.

While SC have started their European campaign with one win and one defeat, the hosts, led by German head coach Thomas Reis and star player Mohamed Salah, have won both of their opening games. Freiburg will therefore need to improve on their performance in Monaco if they are to come away with a result on Thursday evening in front of a passionate crowd at the 40,000-capacity Papara Park. “We’ll have to compete at a very high level if we want to get anything from this game. Their style of play is different to what we’re used to in the Bundesliga. They leave spaces that we’ll need to exploit with precision,” said Schuster, acknowledging the Turkish side’s impressive form.

Much of the attention in the build-up has been on the prospect of facing 34-year-old Egyptian superstar Salah. Günter, however, is more concerned with the team as a whole: “We’ve prepared for him just as we would for any other opponent. He’s one of the very best and has brought his quality with him to Trabzonspor. We have to work together as a team to deal with both their overall quality and his individual strengths.”

Freiburg could also be boosted by the return of Philipp Treu, Berkay Yilmaz and Bruno Ogbus, who have all been struggling with injuries recently but have now resumed team training. Patrick Osterhage, meanwhile, has not travelled to the Black Sea due to muscular problems. SC will also have the backing of 420 travelling supporters who are making the trip to Turkey.

Photo: Achim Keller